


How the hell are you gonna love somebody else

by Poppedthep



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, RuPaul's Drag Race UK RPF
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Best Friends, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Feelings, Friends to Lovers, Power Dynamics, Slow Burn, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, it's gonna take years, truly the SLOWEST of burns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-21
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-28 15:48:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30141894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poppedthep/pseuds/Poppedthep
Summary: “Black, Tayce.”Aurora watches her strut up to the little stool, stunning, unbothered, enigmatic. She wears the Sorting Hat like she’s modelling it, stormy eyes looking out intensely from under the brim, long hair falling around her face. The hat rests a moment, while everyone takes in the ethereal perfection, before lazily calling,“SLYTHERIN!”Aurora has never seen someone so flawless. It looks like a glamour or a charm, but it’s real. Getting to see her up close, Aurora understands why everyone basically worships the House of Black.A Hogwarts AU.
Relationships: A'Whora/Tayce (Drag Race)
Comments: 42
Kudos: 64





	1. THE SORTING

**Author's Note:**

> Hello chooks! Dipping my lil toes into Taywhora with a casual epic multi chap 
> 
> Embracing a lot of creative license in this. Harry Potter things are from memory and the characters may or may not speak and act more like adult drag queens than tween wizards. and might diverge a bit from DR canon for the Hogwarts world!
> 
> CONTENT WARNINGS: saying mean and offensive things about people that do not represent the views of the author! (weight, appearance, mental ability, wealth, gender, species, blood status), self hatred so thick you could cut it with a knife, occasional vague references to disordered eating, HP canon-typical spookiness and violence, DR canon abusive relationship, neglectful and mindfuck-y parenting, unrealistically good at sex teenagers, non explicit (but very consensual) power dynamic vibes, potentially nauseating softness, melodrama and far too much angst. Some of these don't come up til later - if we get there - but here they all are at the beginning to be safe!
> 
> Thank you to DRUK's official Ellie Diamond dialogue consultant, Ortega. and Holtz for encouragement and lovely chats.
> 
> I'm breaking my own rules posting this before it’s finished because the draft is so long (currently 83k help I'm obsessed) if I waited to edit it all it would prob never happen. I know this tactic didn't go well for the Eternal Sunshine fic, FINGERS CROSSED it goes better for this one!! 
> 
> As you will see, I have fully gone off the deep end into this AU. It provides me almost as much serotonin as irl Taywhora (sometimes more!) I hope you get some good vibes from it too!
> 
> All of these characters are fictional.
> 
> Irrelevant to the story, but Bimini Bon Boulash wants me to let you know for peace of mind that any fur or leather clothing mentioned are the vegan versions :)

“Black, Tayce.”

Aurora watches her strut up to the little stool, stunning, unbothered, enigmatic. She wears the Sorting Hat like she’s modelling it, stormy eyes looking out intensely from under the brim, long hair falling around her face. The hat rests a moment, while everyone takes in the ethereal perfection, before lazily calling, 

“SLYTHERIN!”

Tayce Black sashays, poised and beautiful, over to the far table, looking pleased with herself but very casual, like it was exactly what she expected. The Slytherins are cheering, clamouring to make room for her, shouts of, “Yes, Black!”, “Come on, Black!” 

When she reaches the head of the Slytherin table she puts her hands up to her mouth, leans back, and shouts “Oi oi!”, making everyone erupt in more cheers. 

Aurora bites her lip, realising she’s laughing, and quickly straightening her face. 

She wasn’t expecting that. 

Within a blink, Black is graceful and pristine, sat up straight folding her hands delicately in her lap, turning to watch the proceedings enigmatically. 

She’s the most fascinating person Aurora has ever seen. 

Aurora was in the same carriage as her on the train, with all the other society pureblood girls. 

She was too nervous to do much more than sit there and silently judge everyone though, already paranoid how much they must dislike her. 

Ever since her mum had to get remarried because her dad went and ran off with a muggle, Aurora’s social standing has been...precarious. 

It was hard enough to fit in before that, no old money like a lot of the other families, their blood purity was all they had. 

She feels like she’s constantly being judged, for things she can’t even help, for the shit hand fate dealt her. That’s why she makes sure she’s always judging back, ready to come for them before they come for her. 

But she’s biding her time with the Hogwarts girls. This is her chance to make friends for the next seven years. Not to put too much pressure on herself, but if she fucks it up now she could end up miserable for the rest of her time at school. Not to mention they’d be the first real friends she’s ever had. She wants them to be good ones, ones who are worth her time. She can actually be fun when people are worth bothering with, she just doesn’t want to waste the effort on nobodies.

So she uncharacteristically kept her opinions to herself on the train, just grateful the girls let her sit down without saying anything when she dragged her trunk into the compartment. Because the pureblood girls in that carriage were _it_ . The coolest, most interesting, most important of wizarding society in her year. She _has_ to impress them. She _has_ to be friends with them. 

Maybe they were just too busy chatting to notice her arrive. They all seem to know each other quite well. Their mums are all friends so they probably saw each other all the time growing up. 

Aurora’s mum used to go to their afternoon teas and charity balls too, before her dad left, the scandal broke, and she didn’t get invited anymore. She was already low on the guest list, they weren't a wealthy family. They were working class wizards from a shit little village where nothing happens. The only thing they really had going for them was their pure blood and the tenuous ties her mum had managed to cling to from Hogwarts and after the scandal that was it. 

Aurora barely remembers the one party she went to where children were allowed before the invitations stopped. It ended early because the Black girl her age set fire to a room of tapestries pretending she was a dragon. 

She would never have guessed the girl her mum described as _“a manic little terror”_ would grow up into the enigmatic Goddess sat across from her in that train compartment. 

Aurora had to remind herself not to stare. She couldn’t stop looking at her face. 

She’s never seen someone so flawless. It looks like a glamour or a charm, but it’s real. Seeing Tayce Black up close, with her dazzling easy smile, talking animatedly, making your heart stop with just a look and not even noticing she’s doing it, making your breath catch with just the geography of her face, seeing her so _alive_ inches in front of her, Aurora understood why everyone basically worships the House of Black.

Aurora lost her seat in the compartment for the second half of the journey. It was the place to be, all the pureblood girls and ambitious half bloods trying to squeeze in with the cool girls. After Aurora got up to go to the loo another girl was in her seat when she came back. 

She didn’t dare try to take it back from her and risk everyone taking the other girl’s side, choosing her to stay in the carriage instead. 

Because why _wouldn’t_ they pick her over Aurora? 

She begged her mum to let her use a permanent plumping potion on her lips before Hogwarts to even out her chin, worked at the village shop all summer to save up for it, but she's not allowed until she's 14. She’s taken them in to fit her perfectly and updated them to match the latest ones in Twillfit’s windows exactly, but she’s wearing her mother’s old robes because they could only afford a few new things this year and Hogwarts is _expensive_. No one in the wizarding village where she grew up wanted to play with her after she told them they were all boring. 

So she wouldn’t be surprised. _She’d_ pick another girl over herself. 

She’d rather be anyone but herself. 

Even one of the stupid kids from her village. At least they don’t _know_ they’re tragic and boring. They’re perfectly happy being mediocre for the rest of their lives. 

The problem is when you can _see_ how much better you could be but you’re not there yet. It’s excruciating.

Aurora couldn't risk trying to get her seat back, it would be too embarrassing. When they inevitably picked the other girl, she’d die of shame if she started Hogwarts crying in front of Tayce Black and all the cool pureblood girls in their year. 

So Aurora spent the second half of the journey to Hogwarts hunched in the train corridor making sure she has her Potions book memorised. Her older brother told her Professor Snape likes to ask questions from the later chapters to catch firsties out. 

Aurora’s not brainy enough to wing it. She needs to be prepared, so she’ll impress Professor Snape and her classmates. Make sure that all important first impression is one she won’t lie awake at night regretting for the rest of the year. 

And it takes her twice as long to read as everyone else - she has to keep tapping the lines with her wand to straighten the words out in the right order and stop them jumping around. It’s so annoying. 

She leaned against the carriage door while reading, trying to listen through it, so she didn’t miss what any of the girls in there were saying. 

“Greengrass, Aurora.”

She stands straight and proud as she walks past Professor McGonagall to the stool, tries to act unbothered at the whispers, schooling her face into bitchy indifference. 

It’s old news now, but it was a big scandal when her dad first left. Everyone in pureblood society heard about it. They said all sorts about her mum. That she must have been a right harpy to drive a wizard into the arms of a muggle. That she was probably running around on him slagging it up and drove him to it. That she must have been a real bitch. 

They probably told their kids to politely avoid Aurora at school because bad blood will out. 

Looks like they’re all planning to judge her based on what they’ve heard about her before they even try to get to know her. 

Fine. She can work with that. 

If they want her to be a little harpy, bitching is something she’s good at. 

Aurora loves her little muggle half sister as much as her brother but she’d never be stupid enough to tell anyone about her. Nobody knows Aurora spends half the Summer Holidays and Boxing Day with them doing muggle things like watching telly and driving places in cars. 

She pretends she hates every minute of it to spare her mother’s feelings, and because she knows it’s what her stepdad wants to hear, but it’s not that bad. Not half as bad as _some_ purebloods make mudbloods out to be. 

Unless it’s in front of her sister she still calls mudbloods mudbloods, though, same as everybody else. She can’t help what her dad did to her reputation or the shitty start she’s had in life but it’s up to her to make herself into the person she wants to be. 

_Don’t worry. I won’t reveal your secrets,_ the old Sorting Hat creaks in Aurora’s ear as she shuffles on the stool, trying to cross her ankles like a lady so no one sees up her robes. _You’ve protected these a long time for the people you care about. A very loyal girl._

 _Are you joking? Not Hufflepuff._ Aurora begs, dread trickling down her spine.

Her worst fear come true. She’s failing already. She knew it.

_Now, now, no need for dramatics. You’re not failing - why, you’ve only just begun! You have a good mind in here, you’ll do just fine._

_Do I?_ Aurora thinks at the hat, genuinely surprised. _Really?_

_Indeed._

That doesn’t seem likely. Aurora’s always found school hard. Even when she’s doing things she likes, she’s always had to try really hard to do well. 

She doesn’t mind hard work though, as long as it pays off. It makes her feel like she’s worth something. 

Maybe the hat is broken. Maybe she broke it. 

_It’d take a lot more than you my dear._

_Cheeky,_ Aurora thinks at it.

_Yes, I am. And you’d know a thing or two about that, wouldn’t you?_

Aurora’s mouth drops open and she gasps an outraged sound.

_But underneath it all...a good heart. Well hidden, but here it is. You could find true friends among Badgers._

_No, I can’t. You don't understand._

Aurora looks across the Great Hall, where Tayce Black is leaning to whisper to Asttina Crabbe, watches her whole face light up beautifully when she laughs. 

Both of them look so flawless. _That’s_ who Aurora wants to be. 

_I’ve got to be in Slytherin. Please._

_You do have ambition,_ the hat sounds unconvinced. _And a thirst to prove yourself. Bravery too. You've had to be stronger than most. That could serve you well in…_

 _...Absolutely not._ Aurora insists vehemently. 

She glares over at the rowdy throng of red and gold on the far left where the hat sent that know-it-all mudblood Veronica Granger just before her. 

_No way._

_Well then, there’s that fine mind of yours..._

_You sure that's me?_ Aurora wonders doubtfully. _You're not still thinking about the girl before me?_

_Oh yes. I see a spark of invention, an eye for design._

_Oh_ , Aurora thinks. _Okay. That’s nice._

_You might be inspired in the House of wit and learning._

Aurora sees a space at the Ravenclaw table next to Laura Chaney, who’s already making the second and third years around her laugh. 

_Fine,_ she sighs in her head, resigned that it’s the best she can do. _If I must_.

At least it’s not Hufflepuff. 

But she can’t help her heart plummeting to her knees.

_Not where you truly desire to be?_

Aurora looks back at Slytherin. 

Tayce Black turns to answer someone, flicking her hair over her shoulder dramatically. It smacks the girl next to her in the face. She smiles at Tayce, dazed, looking like she’d happily thank her for it. 

Aurora knows the feeling. 

_No._ She thinks firmly. _It’s not._

_Ah. So ready to do anything for the people you love._

_Sorry...the people I_ **_what_ ** _?_

_You’ll be loyal to a fault. Very hardworking. You know I really should put you in…_

Aurora panics, mind racing. 

She looks over at Bimini Bones and Cherry Abbott, grinning at each other on the end of the centre table and they seem perfectly nice but it’s not…. She _can’t…_ . she _has_ to...

 _Listen, you smelly old hat. You can see that I know how to sew. If you don’t put me in Slytherin_ _now_ _, I swear, I’ll come find you later and unpick you. Thread by fucking thread,_ she thinks, furiously. 

_Sorry, but I'm not just going to sit here and let you ruin my life._

_Very well then,_ the hat sounds a little miffed. _I suppose that’s cunning enough. If you’re sure you want them as your kin, better be...SLYTHERIN!_

Aurora exhales, lightheaded with relief when the Hat shouts it out loud. She tries not to show how badly her legs are shaking as she makes her way over to her new House, to an unenthusiastic smatter of applause, smiling down at the green of her tie. 

It won’t go as nice with _her_ ugly eyes as Tayce Black’s, but she _did it_ . She made it to Slytherin. Her mum and stepdad will be so pleased. They would have been happy enough with Ravenclaw but _Slytherin_ , they’ll be _thrilled_ . She’ll be with all the best girls. All the _right_ people to be friends with. Wizarding excellence.

She's never had real friends before. She never even _wanted_ to fit in with the grubby _common_ kids in her village. Since she could read she’s poured over the gossip columns of the Prophet and dreamed of a better life, with more glamorous people. People like her. People who won’t think she’s snobby for having good taste, who’ll _appreciate_ her looking down on others. She's determined to make those friends at Hogwarts. There _have_ to be people for her here, and she knows all those girls will be going to Slytherin.

She walks along the Slytherin bench. Everybody is pressed close, ignoring her completely, talking to each other or watching the Sorting. She drifts towards the other first years who’ve sat down so far, heart pounding, rolling back her shoulders and strutting so she looks more confident than she feels. 

There’s a space open next to a silent, greasy boy picking at a spot. 

Or further down the bench there’s Tayce Black, surrounded by girls clamouring to talk to her. Some of them look like third or fourth years _at least_ . She’s practically _glowing_ with popularity. Or maybe it’s her natural highlight reflecting the candles. Aurora’s never seen a face like hers. If Tayce Black was a muggle, she’d be on TV.

Well, Aurora might as well start as she means to go on. She didn’t come here for nothing.

She doesn’t dare walk right up to Tayce Black and the popular girls but she approaches the bench opposite. Close enough that if she sits there she’ll be able to hear their conversations, so she can try and join in if she can think of anything good enough to say. 

As she approaches the bench, eyeing a very small space occupied by a bag and wondering if she can fit in there if she sits very straight and holds her breath all night, a pug-nosed second year turns over her shoulder and looks her up and down. 

“Sorry, no room, _Greengrass_.”

Aurora’s heart pounds. She can feel everyone nearby turn and look at her being so casually dismissed. Her face gets hot. She doesn’t dare look over but Tayce Black must be one of them watching. 

Could she ask for a worse start to her school social life? Being pulled down in front of everybody in her House. 

Part of her just wants to crumple up and run away and cry. 

But a fiercer part wants to pull this pug nosed bitch down right back and serve her right. 

She puts on her most disgusted face, the one she uses to talk to mudbloods if anyone’s looking.

“Why? Your fat arse taking up the whole bench? Better skip dinner then, babe. Or they’ll have to roll you in for the next feast.”

Cutting through the shocked silence, a delighted peal of laughter cackles across the table. Aurora looks up and Tayce Black’s eyes are shining merrily at her.

“As if I’d wanna sit next to _you._ Have to keep my arm around my plate all night so you don’t snatch anything, wouldn't I?" She breaks into an over the top mime of it, grotesque physical humour.

Her eyes flick over, making sure Black’s still watching with that entertained little smile, hoping no one can tell she’s shaking with adrenaline. 

"What?!" She pouts sassily. "Girl, everybody was thinking it."

“Oi, Greengrass.”

Aurora’s heart stops at the buttery lilt saying her name.

"Yes?" She dares look properly across the table, lips pursed and expression hard. 

Tayce Black looks Aurora over, huge eyes alight with curiosity. 

“We got room over yer."

Everyone around her pays attention to Aurora now, ranging from impressed to envious to disapproving. 

“Asttina, shift down, babes,” Tayce elbows her friend. Asttina Crabbe frowns at Aurora, clearly very comfortable in pride of place next to Tayce, but reluctantly slides down.

“I wanted to be by the potatoes anyway. I love potatoes,” she says to anyone who’ll listen. 

Aurora walks to the other side of the bench feeling like she’s moving in slow motion, like it’s a dream, as she slides into an empty seat right next to Tayce Black. Their thighs are almost touching. 

“Hefty cow, ain’t she?” Tayce smirks at Aurora. “Sorry Parkinson, love ya girl, but it’s true,” she leans back, kicking her legs, hanging half off the bench, thoroughly enjoying herself.

Parkinson blinks at them, cowed, and looks away. _That’s more like it_ , Aurora thinks, heady with a feeling of power she’s never had before. _Show some respect._

She doesn’t love that that particular voice in her head sounds a bit like her dad’s when he’s on one. 

But she _loves_ this. Sitting next to Tayce Black _judging_ people she doesn’t feel poor or ugly or not good enough. She feels as good as her taste: _exquisite_.

“So, Greengrass...” Tayce appraises Aurora with interest, while Aurora tries not to blush looking directly at her. She’s so _alive_ , almost vibrating with energy. Her intoxicating smell invades the air all around her, like an expensive candle.

“Aurora,” Aurora smiles widely, delirious with happiness, puffing out her chest and offering a hand to shake daintily. 

She immediately worries she might look too eager and tries to school her face into an aloof pout instead. 

Tayce follows the change in expressions, looking very amused.

When it’s been three seconds and Tayce is just smirking at her in fascination with an eyebrow raised, Aurora snatches her hand back, inwardly cringing, and stuffs it between her thighs.

Aurora is usually a very confident person but Tayce Black makes her want to stutter.

“Hello Aurora. I’m Tayce,” Tayce Black finally offers, with a slow, wicked smile. As if anyone in the school doesn’t know. From the amused look in Tayce’s eyes, she knows it too, and she’s playing with her. 

She reaches between Aurora’s legs and frees her hand, picks it up and gives it a gentle shake, intense eyes not leaving her face. Aurora’s cheeks feel hot. 

Tayce’s gaze flicks down to her collarbone.

“I like your necklace. Cute.” 

“Thanks! I made it myself,” Aurora sticks out her chest proudly, showing it off. 

Aurora first learned to sew because they couldn’t afford to buy new robes very often and she was not about to let herself look _cheap_ or _last season_. To everyone’s surprise, she got really good, as good as people twice her age, and found she actually really liked it. 

Now Aurora makes clothes for fun - robes, dresses, and she’s started on accessories and jewellery as well. She loves it. It’s probably the only thing she doesn’t worry about being shit at.

“Ooo. Get you, boo,” Tayce Black quirks an eyebrow. “A right crafty Susan.”

 _Tayce Black_ is sitting right there, validating Aurora's fashion sense. She can die happy.

Tayce is wearing a jumble of pretty necklaces herself, hanging attractively in the open collar of her shirt like each one was perfectly placed. 

“I can make you one too if you like,” Aurora rushes out. 

She cringes again, hoping it doesn’t sound too keen.

But the thought of Tayce wearing one of her designs is...something. 

“Why not,” Tayce smiles indulgently. “Better make it good though, girl. I don't wear crap.”

Aurora feels the challenge, sees the little spark of a gauntlet in the depths of Tayce’s stormy eyes, and is determined to make Tayce Black the best necklace she's ever seen. 

Urgency shoots through her to make the most of her opportunity at Tayce Black’s side, to keep her interested. 

Tayce enjoyed her judging that second year? Well good thing judging is what she does best. She could do that all night. 

“What about her cloak though?” Aurora points over at an unfortunately dressed girl sitting with the Ravenclaws.

“Mmm, the _audacity_ ,” Tayce murmurs, leaning close, the warm weight of her slim shoulder pressing into Aurora’s arm. 

“I _know_. Did she enlarge it off a house elf? Cause nobody’s selling ones that shit to wizards,” Aurora replies archly. 

Tayce snickers, leaning heavily against her.

The Ravenclaw girl they’re looking at turns around self consciously, looking right at them, because when Tayce Black laughs, all her friends do too. 

At her hurt, confused look, Aurora feels a bit bad. 

She knows exactly what it feels like to have people talking about you and laughing at you. 

It’s not nice. Even if they _are_ right.

But she also feels the warmth of Tayce Black’s conspiratorial grin on the side of her face, and nothing is more important than that. 

If she was here to worry about other people’s feelings, she might as well have let the hat put her in Hufflepuff where she could waste her life away being _nice_. 

She’s here to make a name for herself, make an impression, and if she has to be brutally honest and hurt a few feelings to do that, so be it. 

It’ll help the girl, anyway, in the long run, to realise how shit her cloak is and do better.

If it was _her_ , she’d want to know.

When Aurora looks up, Tayce Black’s eyes are still shining at her, amused and impressed, and Aurora's smile spreads out of control. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


	2. POTIONS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Optional game for this chapter (and the whole fic tbh) - Take a shot for every line you recognise! :)

Aurora doesn’t want to leave her bed her first morning waking up at Hogwarts. It’s ten times more comfy than her shit bed at home and she feels sick with nerves about how much she wants the day to go well. How badly she wants people to like her.

But she needs to get up before any of the other girls, so she can get some makeup on and do her hair quickly before anyone sees her and realises the true extent of how bad she looks without any of it. 

It’s one thing shuffling to bed in the candlelight with the flattering soft green glow of the lake through the windows. The harsh light of day is another matter.

She’s fully ready, made up and dressed, by the time the other girls start peeking out from behind their bed drapes. She sits on her bed and repacks her bag, waiting for them, because she doesn’t even want to go out to the Common Room on her own, let alone the Great Hall.

“Should we wake her up, gals?” Ellie Goyle looks doubtfully at Tayce Black’s closed drapes, when they’re all ready to go up to breakfast and they haven’t heard a peep from behind them.

“I wouldn’t,” Asttina grabs Ellie in the act of reaching for the drape. 

“Ooo shan, that's a wee bit harsh. Isn’t she your best friend?” 

“So?” Asttina laughs. “You saw her put wards on last night. I am _not_ going to mess with Black wards. Our mums like to chat, that doesn’t mean I’ll get myself cursed for the girl because she can’t wake up on time.” 

She flicks her hair over her shoulder as she turns. She’s very cool and very beautiful but Aurora thinks it pales in comparison to when Black does it. 

“Sorry babe,” Asttina says to Tayce’s closed drapes on their way out.

Tayce Black turns up as they’re leaving the Great Hall, finished with breakfast. She comes barrelling across the Entrance Hall like a force of nature, with bed hair and not one scrap of makeup on.

“Bore da, bitches.”

Even yawning and disheveled, with a pillow mark on one cheek, she’s still the most beautiful person Aurora has ever seen. It almost makes her gasp. Every time she looks at her it hits her all over again. 

“Wakey wakey eggs and bakey, is it, girls?”

“Not quite, hun. You missed it,” Asttina smugly smoothes down her tie. 

“Saved you some toast,” Aurora offers two pieces to Tayce wrapped in one of the posh Hogwarts cloth serviettes, under a warming charm. 

The other girls look at her funny and she blushes.

She agonised over what to take for her and she feels stupid as soon as she says it but she didn’t like thinking of Tayce being hungry all morning because she missed breakfast. 

If Tayce hadn’t turned up before Potions, Aurora was considering running back down to the dorm and taking her chances with the Black wards to wake her. 

She just couldn’t do nothing and let someone she hoped would become her friend fall behind and get off to a bad start on their first day.

Tayce’s eyes light up at the toast. 

“Nummies. Love a bit of toast, I do,” she takes an enthusiastic bite while Aurora trips over her tongue trying to say, _“Hope you like toast, I wasn’t sure what you like, so I just got the most…”_

“Warming charm too? Mmm. Baby baby, thank _you_ ,” Tayce mumbles around bites, shimmying her shoulders.

“Um, I don’t know if you want them but there’s…” Aurora is definitely blushing now as she pulls out a little pot of warm beans. 

The girls look at her like she’s got two heads.

“When did you take those gal?” Ellie is looking at her almost suspiciously. “You got a full Continental in there?”

“Just thought she might be hungry,” Aurora shrugs self consciously.

“I might seem like a sour faced twat but really I just wanna help everyone out,” she insists, hot in the face and wondering if she would have picked up something for the other girls if they were the ones falling behind. 

She thinks she would. But it felt really important to do it for Tayce.

She frowns at the beans and winces. 

“These might be a bit awkward to eat though, I wasn’t sure…”

Tayce snatches the beans and tips them straight on the bread, vanishing the pot and beaming. 

“Gorra have it with beans. Aurora, you read my _mind_ , girl. You’re amazing. _Phwoar_!” she makes a borderline indecent noise when she takes a bite, wiping a trail of sauce off her chin with the back of her hand. 

"Whenever you're ready babe," Asttina eyes Tayce munching on her breakfast, not quite outwardly disapproving but a little bit snooty.

“Born ready, baby. Let’s go!” Tayce shouts through a mouthful, spraying crumbs, bouncing on her heels. 

She brushes the crumbs off her lips charmingly. As they set off across the hall she shoots Aurora a little smile.

“Cheers, boo boo,” she murmurs quietly.

“I got you, girl,” Aurora shrugs, still all warm but now with pride at having done something right.

///

By the time they’re walking down to Potions, their first class of the year, Tayce has demolished the food, dusted the crumbs off, licked up stray flecks of sauce, flipped her hair upside down and styled it with her wand, straightened her uniform with a spell, and looks as untouchably perfect as ever. You’d never believe she woke up ten minutes ago. 

She doesn’t seem to care that she’s got no makeup on. Not that she needs it. Her eyes are heart stoppingly striking bare. 

She’s also left her tie undone. Aurora can’t tell if she forgot or she’s daring a professor to tell her off. She doesn’t want to say in case it’s intentional and she looks stupid. But it’s either bold or careless of Tayce for their first day. 

Either way she makes it look so cool. On her it looks like an accessory, not a uniform. 

Aurora’s tailored her robes to fit perfectly, showing off her recently blossoming figure, but you can’t tailor how good an attitude like _that_ looks. 

They strut through the corridor, Aurora doing her best to match the other girls in fierceness. 

Tayce walks between Aurora and Asttina, an arm hooked through each, and Aurora glows with pride to be by their side, one of them. She tosses her painstakingly styled beach waves importantly when heads turn to look at them. 

There’s only room to walk three wide in the corridor so Ellie falls behind, and Aurora feels like pinching herself that it‘s not her being left out and made to walk in the back. Strutting next to Tayce, her perfume wafting around them like a cloud, Aurora feels like royalty.

“Can’t believe you were nearly late already. Less than a day, babe,” Asttina mutters, archly amused.

“Can’t believe school’s this _boring_ already,” Tayce tosses back. “Give us something to wake up for. How about that, Pat?”

Aurora was excited about their first class at Hogwarts, and has no idea who Pat is, but she doesn’t argue. She can see how everything else in the world must be a bit boring when you’re Tayce Black. 

“Come on Hogwarts! Let’s be having you!” Tayce shouts, jumping and hanging on their arms, swinging her long legs to kick the air, ferociously challenging the echoey stone corridor like something might happen if she commands it.

The outburst startles Aurora. Tayce smirks at her sideways, enjoying how ruffled she got. 

She smoothes down the skirt of her robes trying to look less flustered than she feels. 

Asttina struts on unfazed. She seems used to it.

A cluster of Gryffindors are gathered outside Potions, blocking their path to the door. 

“Excuse you,” Asttina sneers. “You’re in our way.”

“Well, you don't own the corridor,” that stuck up little mudblood Veronica Granger dares to say, like she thinks she’s a teacher or something.

“Rude,” Asttina looks at her like the lowlife she is. 

Aurora glances at Tayce and she’s perked up, looking entertained. 

“You really do think you're too cool for school, don’t you?” Granger sniffs bossily.

“Actually I think you’re a filthy little mudblood,” Asttina dismisses her.

“Yeah. Shoo, fly,” Tayce flicks a hand at her and pushes past. 

Aurora laughs along with the other girls. 

“Listen, bitch tits, we've got just as much right to stand here as you,” Tia Potter looks all outraged, hands on her hips. 

A couple of people nearby gasp. The Girl Who Survived, talking to Tayce Black like that.

She must be friendly with the mudblood. Aurora knew she had bad taste when she saw the badly fitting second hand clothes she turned up on the train with. Apparently the lack of taste continues. Not what she would have expected the way everyone seems so obsessed with her.

“I mean it's a corridor,” Potter faces off with Tayce as Tayce turns slowly and regards her. “Hello? That’s what they're _for_? Other people go to school here too, you know.” 

“Think you’re special, don’t you, Potter? Very pleased with yourself. To be honest with you, I don’t see it,” Tayce tilts her head, considering her, narrowing her eyes. 

Aurora doesn’t know how Tia Potter is facing her down so unbothered. She’d absolutely _melt_ and _die_ if Tayce Black looked at _her_ like that.

“You might’ve got Dumbledore’s little pecker going but that’s between you and him. Don’t expect the rest of us to kiss your arse just for being here, girl.”

“Bit basic, really, aren’t you?” Aurora adds, to back Tayce up, looking Tia Potter up and down. 

Tayce’s eyes flick over to her approvingly and a thrill goes down her spine.

“Don’t see what everyone’s fussed about, Potter. You don’t look like much. Not my cup of ... _Tia_ ,” she smirks and wrinkles her nose in disapproval, very aware of Tayce grinning and nodding along beside her. 

“‘Specially keeping company with _that_ ,” Aurora pulls out her _ew, a mudblood_ look and turns it on Veronica. “Pipe down, girl.”

“Well, you're a judgemental little cow, aren't you?” Sissy Weasley sneers at Aurora. 

Aurora hadn’t even noticed she was there until she spoke. All Weasleys look the same to her, and none of them are interesting. 

“Wind your neck in, Weasel. No-one’s talking to you,” Tayce’s eyes flare, something dangerous in their depths. 

Aurora feels warm in her chest how quickly Tayce snapped back on her behalf. 

She knows Tayce Black just doesn’t like being talked back to in general but it’s still...nice. Aurora’s so used to fighting her battles alone.

She’s glad she saved Tayce some toast. 

Even though those beans were messy as hell to carry. She’ll have to scourgify her bag later. But she loves beans on toast for breakfast herself so that’s what she went for. It would have been pointless to bring the toast without the beans.

“You don’t wanna start with me babygirl,” Weasley won’t shut up. 

Aurora stares at her. Who does she think she is? Does she not know it’s _Tayce Black_ she’s talking to? She should show some _respect_. 

“Oh, I don’t start things, babe. I finish them,” Tayce smiles dangerously. 

In a blink, she has her wand out, the air around her practically crackling. 

Her expression is cold and aloof but her eyes blaze, ready to jump into a duel. 

“Come on then, girls,” Tayce licks the point of her wand indulgently, increasingly feral, looking actually fucking terrifying. “Wanna go?”

She points the wand at Sissy’s heart. 

“‘Cause, best believe, girl, I’m ready,” she traces her wand through the air between the three of them. “All you girls should be scared of me.”

The silence is tense. Aurora doesn't breathe. 

“.....RAAAAAWR!” Tayce screams, stomping her huge boot.

Everyone jumps and pisses themselves, and Tayce cackles like a mad banshee. 

Chaos descends. Sissy, Veronica and Tia get their wands out, and it looks like a duel might actually be about to happen.

Great. That took _less than a day._

Aurora hopes they don’t write and tell parents if you’re caught duelling because hers will be very disappointed.

She gets her wand out and stands next to Tayce anyway, in case she needs her. 

Even though she highly doubts Tayce Black needs anybody’s help to slay in a duel. 

Aurora doesn’t know many offensive spells anyway. The ones she _does_ know she feels silly trying to do seriously in front of people and she can just about get a shield up from practising with her brother’s wand when she was little. 

But it seems like the right thing to do. She wants to have Tayce’s back. Tayce was so quick to stand up for her when Weasley was rude. Aurora still feels a lingering warmth in her chest about it. 

Asttina and Ellie pull out their wands too. The corner of Tayce’s mouth quirks in a tiny smile of approval as she registers them all backing her up. Then she’s staring the Gryffindors down fiercely, pure fire. She seems to grow even taller, drawing herself up proud and dangerous, eyes glowing, ready to pounce. Aurora almost expects sparks to fly off her. 

“I told you, girls. You should be scared of me,” She advances on them. “ _Terrified._ ”

The Potions door creaks open and out comes Professor Snape. 

Tayce whips around smoothly to face him, wand clasped behind her back, long hair trailing behind her and smacking Tia Potter in the face.

Aurora fumbles to stuff her wand up her sleeve and doesn’t manage it in time, so she pretends to be chewing on the end of it instead. 

Professor Snape gives her a curious look. 

Great. Now he thinks she’s an absolute idiot who stands around in corridors nibbling absentmindedly on wands.

“ _What,_ may I ask, is all the commotion?” Snape drawls, unimpressed. 

“Black and her cronies were threatening us, sir,” Veronica bursts out immediately. Little tell tale.

“Oh my goodness, _sir_ . We did no such _thing_!” Tayce blinks up at their Head of House, turning on the charm, a picture of wide eyed innocence.

“They harassed _us,_ sir. Their language was disgusting, absolutely appalling,” Aurora adds in solidarity and Tayce’s mouth twitches in minute approval. 

“ _Very disrespectful_ ,” Aurora dares a cheeky smirk at Potter when Professor Snape isn’t looking.

Tayce is practically grinning.

“I can’t actually believe this. They’re so obviously _lying_. This one just had her wand in our faces,” Tia Potter exclaims. “I won’t repeat what she said...”

“Sir. Sir, sir, _sir_ ,” Tayce shakes her head, hamming it up, like she’s mortally offended. 

“The cheek! The nerve, the gall, the audacity and the _gumption_ , sir,” she tuts, overdoing it to be honest, enjoying the show of innocence as much as she enjoyed threatening them. 

“She pulled her wand on us! She just went mad out of nowhere!”

“Sir, I’m just over here ready to make some potions,” Tayce shrugs, eyes glinting.

“You’re joking,” Tia stares at her. “Sir, she…”

“Enough, Potter,” Professor Snape interrupts, holding a hand up. 

He turns to Tayce, Aurora, Asttina and Ellie. 

“Ladies. Inside. Now,” he inclines his head sharply. 

“But sir…” Potter starts. On their way in they hear Snape take ten points from Gryffindor. 

Tayce snickers triumphantly, spinning and walking backwards, twirling her wand between her fingers. She looks so delighted, Aurora can’t help grinning back at her like an idiot. It feels amazing to get away with something. Apparently things like that just happen when you’re with Tayce Black.

“Yeah, I hope you're happy with yourself,” Potter mutters as she trudges in. 

”Vicious cows,” Weasley grumbles.

"Us?" Tayce shrugs innocently. "We're just keeping it real, girl. Anything we got to say we'll say it to your face. You three are the dark horses! The mouth on you! The cheek! When you swan around acting all innocent, Potter. Shady ladies! Wonder what Dumblekins would think of that lip."

"You can talk, when you think you're all that," Veronica Granger sniffs. 

"Excuse you, we are!" Tayce shrugs a single shoulder, regal and stunning and no one in their right mind could argue. "And a bag of chips. Dunked right in a fat ramekin of ketchup, baby."

"Sorry if you can't handle it," Asttina shrugs smugly.

“We can’t help that we’re just better than you,” Aurora preens, making herself laugh and Tayce chuckle. 

Stood next to the gorgeous Slytherin girls, winning arguments, feeling part of a group, the _best_ group, she really feels it. Like she's finally in the right place. With people on her level. And she can’t help enjoying bragging about it. 

“Girls, little tip," she pouts, superior, "Jealousy is _so_ unattractive.”

Tayce grins at her.

“So unattractive? I think you’re looking in a mirror, babe,” Weasley sneers. 

That one stings because Aurora knows it's true. But she sneers back as though it’s beneath her to deign to respond.

“Oi,” Tayce snaps. “You might have been raised in a barn, Weasley, but didn’t your mother tell you? If you haven’t got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all.”

“Then why’s she still talking?” Sissy glares at Aurora.

“Build a bridge and get over it. What are we, children?” Tayce is calm but her eyes flare like a warning. “We’ve only been here a day. Get a grip, girls. Let it go. Take it like a big girl.”

Tia makes an incredulous noise.

“You just threatened my friends.”

“Your friend just insulted my friend. Fair’s fair, Potter. And you know what? I’d think twice before you do it again if I was you,” Tayce smiles dangerously. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, girls.”

Aurora just stands there taking in the dizzying experience of Tayce Black referring to her as a _friend_. 

“Oh yeah we’re really scared of you,” Potter drawls sarcastically. 

“You should be,” Asttina smirks.

Professor Snape billows past to the front of the room, spreading his arms with a flourish, and the girls scatter.

“Wow. Has he heard of deodorant?” Aurora mutters, satisfied when it makes Tayce giggle like she hoped.

“You're a shady cunt aren’t you?” Tayce’s eyes dance at her. “An absolute hound. Not even shy about it,” she digs her with a pointy elbow. “I love it.” 

“Take your seats, immediately,” Snape bellows from the front of the room.

Suddenly Aurora notices the rows of two person desks and freezes, stomach sinking. 

“You will be working with the partner you choose today for the remainder of this year. So choose wisely,” Snape drawls silkily.

Aurora’s heart falls. She sees everyone pairing up, already imagining herself the last one left without a partner. She quickly fixes a bitchy expression on her face so no one can tell she cares. 

How embarrassing will it be if there’s an odd number and she has to work on her _own_ all year at the back? Still, it might be better than getting stuck with whoever else nobody else wanted. 

A smooth dry hand grabs her wrist. Tayce Black tugs her forward, cool hand sliding to clasp her palm. 

“Come on girl, pick up your feet! Gorra get a prime spot.”

Numb with shock, Aurora propels herself after Tayce’s eager bounding to a desk at the front, breathless with excitement at being chosen. 

Tayce Black picked _her_ to work with. Of everyone in class. Of all the Slytherins. She wants to sit next to Aurora for a whole _year_. She must be dreaming.

Aurora doesn’t think she’s ever been so happy. She tries to stop smiling like an idiot in case Tayce sees and regrets it. 

“You better be good at Potions, boo boo,” Tayce looks over a bony shoulder, getting her textbook out. 

“We only get O's at this table,” she shakes her long hair out, a ripple of perfection down her back. 

Aurora’s throat tightens with dread. She’s not _that_ good.

“Keep your knickers on, girl, only joking,” Tayce breaks into a grin at whatever look is on Aurora’s face, expressive eyes crinkling, changing from fearsome to delighted.

Aurora tries to make her shell-shocked laugh convincing. 

“Well, lucky for you I’m actually amazing at Potions,” she pouts, faking confidence, mouth quirking where she's trying not to laugh. “Try and keep up, bitch.”

Tayce puts her textbook down and smirks at the challenge, eyes alight. 

“To be honest we might be relying on your eye. But I’ll give it a go, girl. The struggle is real but the hustle is deep.”

Aurora grins back, softening. 

“Well, you know, if you need help or anything...” 

“Cheers again, boo boo. You’re a little treasure, aren’t you?”

She looks away from the sparkle in Tayce’s eyes because she feels like she’s smiling too much. Her mum would say she looks simple.

She puts her bag on the desk and spots Asttina Crabbe at the desk across from them with Ellie Goyle, looking very put out. 

Aurora is just as surprised. She never dreamed Tayce would pick her over Asttina. Over _anyone_. She certainly wouldn’t pick herself, so the reason why is a mystery. Maybe it was the toast. She’s just so grateful to be chosen. She looks over at the board so Asttina’s dirty look at her doesn’t spoil her moment. 

She may as well enjoy it while she can.

After Professor Snape asks a round of questions that demonstrates exactly how basic Tia Potter is, he assigns them a potion to brew by the end of the class, promising ten house points for the best one. 

“Can you believe Potter came to school without reading her books? How embarrassing,” Aurora mutters to Tayce. “She should just go home.”

Aurora’s so glad she spent all summer revising and preparing to make sure she wouldn’t be behind. It’s so very satisfying to be able to look down on others. 

“Long as it’s not one of them Gryffindors, I don’t care which of us gets the points, do you?” 

“Speak for yourself, girl. I wanna win,” the playful gleam in Tayce’s eyes sends a thrill through her. 

It makes her want to be better, to be the _best_. 

She wants them both to be. Together. She’s had enough of doing stuff on her own.

“I know we’re against each other but if you need anything...just let me know.”

Aurora finds she’s actually doing okay with the potion, going through all the right colour changes and consistencies exactly on schedule. She’s proud of herself.

Aurora doesn’t have a hope in hell’s chance of being the cleverest witch in the room but she can try to be the most prepared.

“This is not going well, Aurora,” Tayce murmurs next to her, peering over her cauldron with concern. She takes a glass stirrer and pokes at it dispassionately.

“Why? What have you…” Aurora leans over and sees the murky brown of her potion. 

It should be forest green. 

“Tayce, you’ve actually fucked this whole thing up.”

Tayce shakes her head and laughs, flinging her hands up in surrender, managing to make being crap at Potions look very charming.

“Oh wait, look, we can save it,” Aurora puts her own potion to one side, chopping up pine needles to bring Tayce’s mess back to a more acceptable colour. 

At the end of class, neither of them wins. 

Aurora’s potion could have been a bit better if she hadn’t spent so long helping Tayce. 

She might even have won. As it is, it’s good enough to make Professor Snape nod and mutter, “Very good, Greengrass.” 

She beams and stores away the praise hungrily, like it’s galleons.

It would have been even nicer to win. 

But she was always going to help Tayce. She couldn’t just have stood by and not helped someone she genuinely… 

...she shakes her head. Better not to finish that thought. She's only known the girl five minutes. 

/// 

A few weeks into term Aurora is doing her hair in their dorm loo on a crisp, chilly morning. 

It’s the crack of dawn, long before the other girls are up, and she’s yawning, exhausted. 

She would have loved nothing more than to roll over in her cosy warm bed and sleep a bit longer. 

But so far everyone thinks she has natural waves and she wants to keep it that way. 

She becomes aware of a prickle along the back of her neck, a feeling like someone is watching her. 

She _really_ hopes it’s not a ghost trying to be funny. 

Half screwing up her face in case it is, she looks over her shoulder in the mirror and Tayce Black is leaning against the doorframe, watching her silently. 

She jumps out of her skin, feeling caught out. 

“Bore da sunshine,” Tayce smiles slow, almost predatory. Her eyes are bright and interested, though what she could be interested about at this time of the morning Aurora has no idea. 

She has a kind of manic energy simmering that makes Aurora wonder if she’s even been to sleep.

“Tayce, you scared me,” Aurora blushes, trying to keep her voice down so they don’t wake the other girls. 

“You’re never doing all that just for school,” Tayce smirks, amused, in the doorframe, watching Aurora curl her hair around her wand and spritz it with Sleekeasy’s like she’s a particularly strange zoo animal. “What’s the point girl?”

“I like to try and look half decent, so what?” Aurora shrugs, self conscious. “It’s considerate of others to put a bit of effort in.” 

“That’s cute,” Tayce’s smile is growing warmer, more entertained. Aurora wants to tell her it’s not a _show_ , this is her life unfortunately, but there’s also a part of her that doesn’t want to say anything that’ll make Tayce stop looking at her. 

“You look like a little doll.” 

Tayce has an expression Aurora hasn’t seen before. Softer, somehow. 

She comes up behind her and tugs on the loose ringlet Aurora just uncurled from the heat of her wand. 

“ _Me_ ?” Aurora splutters, feeling her cheeks burn. “Don’t be stupid. If anybody does it’s _you_.” 

Tayce frowns doubtfully. 

“You _do_ ! Oh, _come on,”_ Aurora rolls her eyes. As if Tayce doesn’t know. She’d have to be _blind_ . _“_ You’re so pretty, it’s unreal.”

“Little old me?” Tayce plays coy. She leans over Aurora’s shoulder and rests her head against Aurora’s, pretending the ringlet is her hair. She smells like sleep and Tayce, a smell Aurora didn’t even realise she knew until right then, and it’s so overwhelming Aurora can’t speak for a second. 

“Well thank you very much, baby,” Tayce purrs and drops the ringlet, muttering _baby baby baby_ , arranging it back in with the rest of Aurora’s loose curls with surprisingly careful fingers. 

“So are you,” Tayce says, looking at Aurora. Really embarrassingly _looking_. A smile dances on her lips. “Little lady.”

“Um, hardly,” Aurora scoffs, rolling her eyes, tingles on her scalp where Tayce moved her hair. 

“And she’s modest, too,” Tayce hops up to sit in one of the sinks. She kicks her long legs up to rest on the taps of the one next to it, bare knees against the porcelain in her pyjamas, and watches Aurora like she’s muggle television.

Aurora’s face feels like it’s on fire. 

She should explain to Tayce that she’s really not being modest, and it’s not a big deal. She’s just realistic about the unfortunate features she was born with and what it takes to make them at least mildly appealing. 

She’s not delusional, it's not like she thinks she’s a Troll or anything. She just has very high standards for herself - like she does for everyone else.

She can’t help that she can see how everything could be better. Life would be a lot easier if she _didn't_ but that's just the way her brain works. And the thing she's around most is her own face, so of course she picks apart all the flaws. If she wants to succeed she needs to constantly be on top of her self improvement. She's already starting at a disadvantage with where she's from so she doesn't need to give herself any _more_. 

But the way Tayce is grinning at her, so sure of herself, like she is about everything... Aurora doesn’t want to disappoint her. 

It almost feels like Tayce wouldn’t even _let_ her disagree if she tried, would get stubborn about it, and that’s an argument Aurora would rather die than have. 

So she shuts up and carries on doing her hair, self consciously, because Tayce is apparently just going to sit in the sink and watch her. 

One of her biggest illusions is shattered. 

A huge part of the armour that helps her feel confident enough to belong sharing a dorm with people like Tayce Black, chipped away. 

Now Tayce knows the extent she has to go to to hide what she really looks like. _Tayce Black_ , of all people, too. The person she wants to impress _most_.

Tayce will probably tell all the girls. The whole school. Not that most of them would even be interested enough in her to care, but still...Kids love to find weaknesses to pick on. She still can’t walk past the kids in her village without them shouting at her asking where she keeps the stick when it’s not up her arse. 

Kids can be brutal. And those were village idiots, not _Hogwarts_ brains. Who knows what they can come up with.

One side of her hair isn’t done at all and she doesn’t have any makeup on yet, not even a brow, and Tayce is looking right at her, getting the full unfortunate picture. 

She should feel awful about it. 

She waits for her usual panic to hit. 

But it doesn’t come. At most it’s a dull buzz in the background. Like an old wireless she left on, not a dragon roaring in her ear. 

Weirdly, sitting there with Tayce whistling in the sink, she just feels...kind of nice. And comfortable. Almost peaceful. For an absolute maniac, Tayce’s energy is strangely calming to be around when she’s quietly simmering.

The next morning, snuggled under the warmth of her duvet, Aurora decides to treat herself to an extra hour of sleep. She gets up with everyone else and curls just the ends of her hair, quickly, while the girls are brushing their teeth. It’s got a little bit of movement but it’s nowhere near the best she’s looked. The top of her hair is flat and horrible. 

Weirdly it doesn’t feel like the world is about to end though.

Tayce spits in the sink and winks at her in the mirror. 

Her stomach squeezes excitedly. 

Even though logically she _knows_ her hair looks bad, she doesn’t feel as ugly as usual. 

She feels pretty amazing actually. Unsettlingly light.

It's going to take some getting used to.

Aurora still does a full face of makeup before going down to breakfast. She’s not gone _insane_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


	3. FORBIDDEN FOREST

“So, what do you think of the Greengrass girl?” 

Aurora freezes, about to push open the door to their dorm. Her cheeks burn and she waits to hear what they say. 

Through the open sliver she can see Ellie pull an unimpressed face at Asttina. 

“My mum said no’ to bother with her.”

“Mine too,” Asttina shrugs, “But _Tayce_ obviously likes her...” she rolls her eyes.

Asttina is gorgeous. Not Tayce Black gorgeous - who is? - but she’s stunning. She looks like she’d flatten you in a duel and carries herself like she knows it. Even though she has a lot more attitude than actual bite, she does have a _lot_ of bite. Aurora gets the feeling Asttina doesn’t like her very much, which is a shame because she thinks Asttina is breathtakingly cool.

Ellie Goyle wears a lot of makeup. Aurora can’t blame her for trying to enhance what nature gave her because she does the same herself and she’s seen Ellie’s spots when she takes it all off. Ellie is taller than the other girls by a good way and a bit stockier built. She seems quieter at first but she can be just as bitchy. It’s almost more alarming from her, because you don’t expect it as much. She’s been quietly funny too, a few times. Coming out with things when Aurora least expects it. She wouldn’t mind getting to know her a bit more if Ellie hasn’t written her off already.

The four of them make up the girls dorm for their year. 

They’ve stuck together so far because Hogwarts is daunting as a first year, but they haven’t really gelled as a group. 

The other girls have grown up around each others’ families. They seem sort of close. They have a short hand with each other and readily tease each other. But they’re not close like Aurora imagined friends would be. They don’t really help each other out or have fun together. They almost seem to enjoy getting to bitch about each other. 

Aurora isn’t against that necessarily. She enjoys a cheeky bitch as much as the next girl. She tries to keep up. To be the _bitchiest_. The most impressive. 

But she was hoping to make some _real_ friends too. Ones she might be able to rely on. 

It’s tiring enough only having yourself to rely on at eleven. She can’t imagine it’ll get any easier as school goes on. 

At least she’ll be one of the first girls in the year to turn twelve. And it's not like she's not used to it. If the only friends she can make are ones she has to keep her guard tightly up with, they're still an improvement on no friends.

Tayce is a bit mysterious and unpredictable in general, sometimes off in her own world, but much friendlier to Aurora than anyone else has been. 

Tayce is friendly and charming to most people, but strangely seems more interested in Aurora than almost anyone else. She has excitable outbursts and mad half hours and can hold a crowd if she’s in the middle of the Common Room, but usually she holds herself back, cool and aloof, nice and polite to all the people who want to talk to her but not that interested in them. Certainly not as interested as they are in her. 

Asttina and Ellie naturally follow her lead, just like their mothers probably suck up to Tayce’s mother. You don’t get much higher than the Blacks in wizarding society. Aurora gets the sense that they only bother talking to her at all really because Tayce does. 

Aurora doesn’t hold it against them that they’re bitching about her behind her back. For a start she assumes everyone is constantly so it’s actually quite mild compared to what they say in her head. But some of their House don’t mind throwing a dirty look to her face either, so at least it’s not as bad as that. 

It’s been much better than she feared though, since Tayce took this weird liking to her. 

For some amazing reason she hasn’t worked out yet, Tayce Black clearly likes and approves of Aurora, and everyone in Slytherin knows it. 

It works in Aurora’s favour because everyone in their House, most people in the school, are more obsessed with Tayce than they care about whatever biases they have against Aurora.

She can tell no one in Slytherin or Ravenclaw particularly _likes_ her but no one dares try leaving her out like Parkinson. People talk to her and most of them are at least polite if not outright friendly. She’s sure they’re calling her all sorts behind her back but at least she doesn’t have to deal with it directly.

The one or two judgemental looks Aurora’s got were met with an even fiercer one from Tayce, and no one wants to risk getting on the wrong side of Tayce Black. As much as they adore her charm, they fear her wrath.

Tayce’s elegance barely masks an antsy fire of energy coiled ready to spring into a duel at any moment. Usually she struts around in cool, enigmatic detachment, but that spark of unpredictable danger is always there. It’s not as pronounced as the madness in some of the Blacks Aurora’s heard stories about, but, though she embodies graceful like a woman of fine breeding, Tayce is certainly not gentle or boring like a lot of society girls. 

Tayce’s personal ferocity aside, even the Black name has power. People in every year suck up to her. Some of the half bloods and blood traitors in the shit houses don't necessarily _like_ her but everyone _respects_ her, is a little bit in awe of her. 

In the few weeks of term so far, Aurora has managed to almost always be with Tayce around school. 

Since that first day she’s stuck by her and the girls from the dorm, trying to act like the perfect Slytherin girl, trying to impress them with her bitchiness, tentatively hopeful every day they haven’t told her to fuck off yet. She’ll stick around as long as she can until they get bored of her. 

If she can keep up the act she might make it all the way through school with friends. Not exactly the kind of friends she dreamed of, maybe, but it’s not like she’s in a position to be choosy. 

One friend at all would be a start. 

She still thinks about how Tayce Black called her her friend to Potter and wonders if she really meant it or was just saying that to make a point. 

Tayce is impossible to read so there’s no way to know. 

It’s not hard to stick with Tayce though. 

Asttina Crabbe left Aurora in the loo when she took too long pulling her tights up and shrugged, _“Sorry babe, I didn’t know you wanted me to wait for you_ ,” coldly when Aurora caught up to her outside Charms, panting from running flat out. 

Ellie Goyle is trying too hard to make friends herself to be much use, keen to talk to anyone who’ll speak to her and consequently avoiding getting stuck with Aurora like the plague. Aurora understands, even though she doesn’t like it. She’d feel bad if people avoided Ellie because of her. The girl has enough of her own social problems. She might have a grand old name but from what Aurora’s heard, Ellie’s family don’t have much more disposable income than Aurora’s own. She can see some people look down on Ellie the same way they do to her.

But Tayce Black, at least, seems to want Aurora around. 

Even though Tayce wolfs down food like it’s about to be vanished, she always waits for Aurora to finish her carefully arranged portion before she leaves the Great Hall after dinner. 

Aurora doesn’t mean to eat so slow but she has to concentrate so hard to make sure her table manners are up to scratch for high society it makes everything take longer. Manoeuvring her knife and fork the right way feels like it should be a sport, it’s so difficult. Her hands just aren’t used to it, and getting it wrong is absolutely unacceptable. 

She always feels a nauseating trickle of worry when everyone else is finished and sat there waiting for her. Often ends up leaving half her plate and saying she’s full so she’s not holding them back. 

But Tayce never leaves without her, no matter how bored she looks waiting. And the other girls wouldn’t leave without Tayce, so everyone waits for her. 

There are never enough armchairs down in the Common Room. 

Tayce Black would never be left without a chair. Even if they were all taken someone would give theirs up for her. But when the Common Room’s full, Aurora might as well be a ghost. Asttina and Ellie sometimes get a chair but they’re often left standing too. 

Since their first week, though, if they only get one seat, Tayce smiles politely at whoever sacrificed it for her, and then nudges Aurora to sit in it first. Usually Tayce squashes into the same chair with her, the two of them together, Tayce draped across the back of it, half wrapped around Aurora, Tayce’s bony elbows in her ribs a sacrifice she is more than willing to make. 

Considerate little things like that make Aurora warily hopeful. Even if it wasn’t amazing for her social standing Aurora would still want to be friends with Tayce. She’s never known anyone like her. For such an intimidating bloody maniac she’s actually really nice. She’s not exactly _warm_ , but she’s the closest thing Aurora’s met to one of those real friends she hoped for. 

Aurora’s gratified to discover her and Tayce share a lot of the same opinions and interests. Tayce loves fashion too, and music. She’s so easy to talk to, Aurora’s already slipped up a few times and forgot to be cool and bitchy. Luckily Tayce hasn’t been put off yet by Aurora accidentally being herself. Goofy or obsessive or whatever else comes out in the moment, Tayce has taken it in stride with an amused eyebrow raise and a twinkle in her eye. 

Tayce can be so fun too. She keeps making Aurora laugh doing surprising stupid things and coming out with the silliest sayings, shattering the perception Aurora had when she first saw her. She might be elegance incarnate, but you never know what she’s going to do next. When she’s going to go wild and silly. She just makes you feel...lighter...and brighter, being around her. 

You couldn’t call her _warm_ but Tayce is _charming._ Leaves you feeling good when you talk to her. Aurora doesn’t blame the Slytherin second and third years and the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff firsties who clamour for her attention. 

Aurora doesn’t delude herself their tentative friendship will last long. 

Someone as interesting and amazing as Tayce Black is bound to get properly bored of her soon. Every day she hasn't yet, Aurora is amazed. 

To make sure she’s ready when she’s on her own fending for herself again, Aurora tries not to rely on Tayce’s consideration and continues with her strategy to pull others down before they can do it to her. To try and position herself as better than them until they all believe it. She swans through school arm in arm with Tayce, telling everyone exactly what's wrong with them, whether they've provoked her or not.

Tayce finds it hilarious. She loves shocking people, whether it’s her making them jump out of their skin by screaming because she feels like it, or making them do a double take at what she’s wearing, or the crude things Aurora says. She adores when people are direct and say exactly what they mean. The lack of filter that most people find distasteful in Aurora is delightful to her.

Aurora pretends she’s fearless until she feels it. Her boundaries are a lot further than others naturally but a lot of the things she says are just to try and impress people. 

Tayce has been raised like all society girls to keep up a pleasant, congenial disposition, nice to everyone. Tayce tries her best to live up to that reputation but she's so clearly bored of all the politeness, drawn to things that are real and messy. The moments of fire that burst through are accidental, her volatile nature overriding her fine breeding. 

It must be so frustrating for her. The first time she caught Aurora doing stupid dances and pulling funny faces at herself in the mirror when she thought she was on her own, Tayce looked genuinely shocked and delighted.

Aurora needs to be careful about being herself too much. Tayce can stalk around so scarily quiet, she should probably always assume Tayce Black might be lurking around the corner watching and behave accordingly. But Aurora does quite enjoy the idea of looking put together and ladylike and surprising people like Tayce that she can be as stupid and disgusting as anyone underneath. It takes a lot to surprise Tayce Black, so she’s proud of that. 

The closer she gets with Tayce, the less Asttina seems to like it. It starts to become a bit of a problem. Asttina and Tayce have theoretically been “best friends” a long time. Their mothers are and it was just assumed they’d continue the tradition. 

If their classes have benches, the Slytherin girls all sit together, Tayce in the middle, and it’s fine. But when they need to partner up, or if they have to sit in twos, Tayce keeps picking Aurora. Asttina gets more annoyed with it every time. 

Despite herself, and despite the fact that she doesn’t love making one of her housemates who she already doesn’t think likes her even more pissed off with her, Aurora is cautiously starting to hope for it. To look to Tayce when their professor says _“find a partner”_ and not just assume she’ll be left on her own. Even though she doesn’t really understand what about herself could possibly be impressive enough for Tayce Black, she’ll take it. She still feels a pleasant little shock every time Tayce chooses her like it’s nothing.

Aurora knows she shouldn't care what anyone thinks of her, not Asttina with her dirty looks, or the rest of Slytherin, or even the legendary Tayce Black, who makes her feel so much more worthy by association. 

She knows her own opinion of herself is all that matters, which is why it’s so annoying that’s her biggest critic.

She knows all this _in theory,_ just like she knew deep down she fundamentally disagreed with her dad when for as long as she can remember he used to casually say she’d need to put a lot of slap on when she was older, because she were blessed with her mother’s arse but cursed with her mother’s face. 

_“If you manage to reel ‘em in, they’ll be happy enough once they see the goods, lass. But it’ll take more slap for you than your average bint. I’m being honest with you, lass, cause I know you can take it. We might not have much to offer you but I won’t raise a stupid daughter.”_

_“She’ll do fine for a bloke, long as she makes the right connections at Hogwarts,”_ her mum used to say, was still saying like broken record when she walked Aurora down the platform in September.

Since she can remember getting advice from her parents Aurora has felt the pressure of their shit expectations building up, knowing those things don’t feel right to her for reasons she can’t even articulate yet, but she can’t help wanting to make them both proud in spite of herself. 

Or wishing they’d be prouder of the things _she_ actually thinks are important. Like how she’d mastered a French Seam by age 9. Some _adults_ can't even sew them. 

“ _Don't fret, you’ll bag some poor sod long as you put the effort in, lass. Worked on me didn't it?”_ her dad used to say, cheerfully smacking her mother’s bum in front of her and making her blush. 

Before leaving Aurora’s mum for another woman. A _muggle,_ no less. 

Aurora ended up wearing makeup religiously anyway, convinced it’s helping her be her best. Probably indoctrinated subconsciously by her stupid parents, but it doesn’t matter, she believes in it now. She can barely look at herself without it on.

Just like she can't help caring even though she knows she should care less.

Turns out trying not to care about something is very hard when you're a person whose whole personality is caring too much. 

Even when she thinks she's not caring, she realises she's trying too hard to get not caring right, and obsessing over if she’s not caring enough, and the whole thing feels inescapable. 

///

When they find out Tia Potter fought a Troll on Halloween, because Veronica Granger won’t shut up bragging about it, Tayce has a right strop. 

“Not being funny, girls, I’m tamping. Fuming,” she paces their dorm throwing blasting curses at unsuspecting cushions. 

“First interesting thing to happen in this bloody castle and we’re scoffing pumpkin pasties in the Great Hall like a bunch of lemons. It’s not on, girls! It’s not _right._ ”

She makes them all sneak out to the Forbidden Forest to look for another Troll so they can fight one too. It’s obviously a really bad idea, Aurora and Ellie give each other a knowing worried look, but none of them can say no to Tayce.

She’s wearing a giant white fur coat, looking like a model in the moonlight, marching ahead, quietly raging with determination. She didn’t bother doing her hair _at all_ and it’s puffed up even further than its natural unrelaxed state as if it’s raging too, absolutely huge around her. 

Aurora is shivering even through her best attempt at a warming charm, with the first cloak she could grab in the time Tayce decided they were all going wrapped around her over her little nightie. Annoyingly it’s her summer one.

Every little noise makes Aurora jump. The forest is pitch black outside the little glow of their wands, and smells weird and Aurora’s brother used to tell her frightening stories about the things that lurk in it. 

“We’re gonnae get inty so much shit if they catch us in this bloody forest,” Ellie’s arm is tucked in Asttina’s, and she sounds even more scared than Aurora feels. 

“This is literally Forbidden, gals. It’s in the name.”

“Good thing they won’t catch us then, bitch,” Tayce throws over her shoulder, marching on ahead. “Pick up the pace, girls, we gotta go in _deep_ to find the real beasts.” 

“Yeah, I don’t know about this, you know, babe. I think I’m done here,” Asttina sounds very doubtful too. 

A little further Ellie steps in a bog of sticky sap and starts pouting over her ruined lilac shoes, wanting to go look up a cleaning charm that will save them before it’s too late. 

They both decide to go back to the castle. 

Apparently that’s Ellie’s cutest pair. Everything she wears is so cutesy and samey Aurora can’t honestly tell the difference.

Aurora would quite literally march blindly into danger before she’d abandon Tayce, as this night is proving, but the deeper they get into the forest she can’t help thinking she should have gone back with Ellie and Asttina. 

The sounds around them are getting louder, constant growling and chirping too far away to see what’s causing it. Even a few howls that make Aurora’s stomach twist. 

“Tayce, we should go back too. Come on. It’s actually getting scary,” Aurora wraps her arms tight around herself, trying to calm the trembling. 

Tayce is so far ahead. She wishes she would slow down and they could walk together but she doesn’t want to ask her to.

“Honey, I’m the scariest thing out here!” Tayce calls over her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We see any beasties? I’ll wipe the floor with ‘em.”

Tayce throws her head back and crows at the sky, like something between a wolf and a raven. 

Wild in the night, silhouetted by the moon, Aurora almost believes her. 

While Aurora struggles to keep up, and gets squeamish about the things she’s stepping on, Tayce pushes ahead, scorching holes through thickets of brambles with bold sweeps of her wand, looking as comfortable as if they were faffing about in the Great Hall. 

“We gotta lure ‘em out. That’s our problem,” Tayce mutters to herself like a woman possessed. 

“Come on then, Trolls! What you saying?! Let’s be having you!” she shouts into the night.

She starts running around in circles like a mad thing, shouting animal noises. A flock of birds, or they might be bats, startle and scatter and the creatures around them get louder, disturbed and agitated. Aurora’s heart pounds with fear. 

“Tayce! Serious! Tayce, shush!” Aurora manages to grab her, like trying to snatch lightning, slapping a hand desperately over her mouth.

She snatches it back immediately, as shocked at herself as Tayce looks. 

Wide, gorgeous eyes stare at her, annoyed, and she shuffles from foot to foot.

“Tayce, I really think we should go back,” Aurora breathes, shakily, stepping back into her own space apologetically and hoping Tayce isn’t about to curse her. “Please?”

“Go on then if you want,” Tayce’s eyes flash, unimpressed. “If you wanna be _boring_.” 

She says it with absolute disgust, like it’s the worst thing a person could ever be. 

It makes Aurora feel small and worthless. 

Her instinct to protect herself with bitchiness kicks in. Before she can stop herself she’s sneering and saying, 

“Better than being the _dead_ girl they find in the morning.”

Even though she never wants to be bitchy to Tayce.

“Ohh, okay. You don't think I can handle a Troll, then?” Tayce is nodding maniacally. “I see how it is.” 

“Tayce, I don't care!” Aurora’s so exasperated she feels like crying. “You know what’s boring? Traipsing round a bloody forest in the freezing bloody cold! Who gives a fuck? I don't care about Trolls.”

“Off you fuck then. Boring cow,” Tayce glares at her, terrifyingly stubborn. 

Aurora feels the dismissal like a stinging curse. 

“…I’m not just going to _leave_ you,” she says quietly, dithering.

“Why not?” Tayce bristles, the night air charged around her. “Lone wolf, me. You weren’t helping anyway.”

“Tayce, be honest, this plan is _rough_. Just come back with me. We can do something else fun instead,” she pleads, trying to be persuasive. 

“Don’t bat those eyes at me girl,” the corner of Tayce’s mouth twitches, like she wants to smile in spite of herself. “Nice try.”

“What?” Aurora blinks, surprised. “I’m not…”

“Off you trot then, if you're going. Go on,” Tayce stares at her. Aurora stares back, trying to be as stubborn. They can’t stay out here, it’s too dangerous. But she can’t leave without her.

Tayce’s glare gets so intense Aurora’s surprised the air in front of her isn’t smoke. She shouldn’t have tried to out-stubborn her. It’s a losing game.

"We're wasting time yer."

Tayce turns sharply and marches into the forest without her. 

“Trip on a log, bitch,” she mutters coldly. 

Aurora blinks at her back, speechless, realising her blinks are starting to blur with tears. 

“Fine,” she shouts after her. “See you in the morning if you don’t _die_ here,” she chokes through a tight throat, tears flooding up, unstoppable.

She quickly turns away, stumbling back the way they came. 

She didn’t realise how much it would hurt for Tayce to be disappointed in her. She feels so frustrated. With Tayce. With herself. She wishes they’d never come out here. The further she walks away from Tayce, the harder she cries. 

She feels so shit for disappointing her, after everything Tayce has done for her. 

And she’s scared for Tayce, alone in the forest. The creatures out here won’t know she’s _Tayce Black_. She’s probably not used to that. 

If Tayce really did get herself killed, Aurora doesn’t know what she’d do with herself. It’s all very well fleeing back to safety when her life would hardly be worth living without her. 

She’s surrounded by noises that keep making her jump, and she can’t see properly through her tears, trembling more with every step.

She shouldn’t have left Tayce. At least she could be scared with company. _Brave, brilliant_ company. 

It would be better than worrying if Tayce is going to die tonight or hate her in the morning. 

She honestly doesn't know which would be worse. 

“TAYCE!” Aurora turns around before she even realises she’s decided to, marching back the way she came, crying so hard her nose is running.

She has visions of Tayce’s body turning up in the Great Hall and shakes her head to try and get rid of them, walking faster until she’s running through the brambles. 

“Tayce!” She’s past the point she left her and the path Tayce was clearing stops ahead but there’s no sign of Tayce Black herself.

From a thicket in front of her Aurora hears a girl scream. 

“ _Tayce_! I’m coming! Hold on!” Aurora runs towards the scream blindly, propelled by worry for her, distantly surprised that annoying hat was right. She _is_ brave and loyal after all.

Who'd've thought. 

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t’ve left you! Tayce, I’m coming!”

She blasts clumsily through the gnarled hedges, surprising herself with the strength of her blasting charm under pressure, and finds Tayce Black standing in a clearing next to a lake, chilling with a centaur.   
  
For a split second Tayce’s face lights up when she sees her - amazement and an almost shy hope. It’s gone before Aurora can even fully process it, and Tayce is smirking at her, slow and familiar.

“No need to scream, girl, here I am.”

Aurora’s mouth hangs open. 

She’s so relieved Tayce is okay, she’s not even angry. 

Well. Not _very_ angry. 

She lets out a shaky breath and shoves her as hard as she dares, adrenaline draining into the night, wiping at her eyes and blushing, hoping the dark hides the worst of how blotchy her face must be from crying. 

“You was the one screaming _.”_

“You came back quick,” Tayce’s eyes are alight. “Did you miss me?”

She’s smiling, which is a relief. 

Aurora wouldn’t have blamed Tayce if she was frosty with her after being abandoned in the middle of a bloody forest.

“Thought you was in _trouble._ What was you screaming for?” Aurora pouts, defensively. Although knowing Tayce she realises now she could well have been screaming for the fun of it. 

“Oh. Sliced my hand on a bloody rock, didn’t I? Firenze here reckons I should get it looked at.”

She nods over at the centaur who blinks at them slowly, the only sign he’s even listening. 

Tayce shows Aurora a sharp gash splitting her palm, pouring blood. 

“Tayce!” She gasps. “That’s really deep. Does it hurt?”

“Not really,” Tayce shrugs bravely, but now she’s closer Aurora can see her jaw is clenched.

“How’d you do it?” Aurora can’t help how worried she sounds.

“Just told you. A rock,” Tayce bristles defensively.

“Which rock?” Aurora looks around the clearing ready to blast the offending rock to bits for hurting her friend. “What was you _doing_?”

“I wanted something to throw, alright, Sherlock?” Tayce mutters, shifty and agitated. 

“At a Troll? Did you see one?” 

Fear shoots through Aurora and she whips around peering suspiciously into the darkness. 

“I never said that, did I?” Tayce sounds almost self conscious, if that wouldn’t be a ridiculous thing to think about Tayce bloody Black. 

“Just wanted to throw something, alright? I was in a fat mood. You saw.” 

“Oh. Sorry,” Aurora says quietly, scared Tayce might still hate her after all. “Only asking.” 

“Try getting left in a forest see how _you_ feel,” underneath the hardness Tayce is trying to project there’s something fragile. 

“I’m sorry,” Aurora’s throat feels tight. She decides not to mention Tayce was technically the one who left _her_.   
  
“It’s fine. Nothing new. Mum always says I can be too much for people,” she smiles coldly, sharp and bitter, and the next part is almost incomprehensible, murmured out at the lake. “Just thought you were different.”

“I am,” Aurora insists reflexively cringing. “I mean, you’re not. I mean, why would she say that? Everybody loves you.”

Tayce shrugs, brushing it off. 

“Yeah. Who cares. Their loss if they don’t anyway.”

She tosses her hair and smiles beautifully. If Aurora hadn’t spent as much time with Tayce as she has, she’d believe her. 

“You came back just in time, missy.”

“For what?” Aurora frowns. If Tayce is about to try and convince her to keep looking for Trolls she’ll have to have a go at persuading this creepy centaur watching them to talk some sense into her. 

“To heal this stonking gash,” Tayce waves her hand at Aurora, blood dribbling down her wrist. “I'm not having much luck here. Must be in shock or something,” she shrugs, unfazed. 

“I would heal the injury but my herd would not approve,” Firenze chips in unhelpfully, exuding such enormous calm and confidence he’s even giving Tayce a run for her money.

“Aurora can do it,” Tayce holds out her palm, apparently completely trusting Aurora not to fuck it up. 

“Tayce, we should get Madame Pomfrey,” Aurora looks at the bleeding gash doubtfully. “I’ve never healed something that deep.”

“I don’t want Madame Pomfrey,” Tayce’s eyes flash stubbornly. “I want you,” she says, a storm brewing in them. “Do it. Go on, I trust you.”

“I can _try_ ,” Aurora takes her hand nervously, overwhelmed by both the responsibility and the way Tayce is looking at her. 

She recites the healing charm more carefully than she’s ever done magic in her life. 

Tayce watches her intently, like she enjoys seeing Aurora stitch her back together. 

When she’s done there’s still a little line on Tayce’s palm where the cut was. It’s faint, but definitely still there. Aurora tries the charm again but it doesn’t change. 

“I’ve fucked it up,” she panics, furious with herself. “Tayce. There’s a scar. I told you.” 

She’s gone and ruined one of the two most perfect hands in the world.

“Only a little one,” Tayce shrugs, peering at her palm. “I like it.” 

She flexes her hand proudly, like she prefers it with the scar.

The wind ripples across the water. 

“Mars is intent tonight,” the centaur says ominously. 

“Um...right. Is it?” Aurora asks awkwardly when he doesn’t say anything else and Tayce just nods and stares enigmatically up at the stars. 

Aurora clears her throat, feeling embarrassed to say it in front of the centaur but he doesn’t seem to be moving any time soon. 

“Tayce...sorry for being boring,” she mumbles, still full of guilt and shame for what a disappointing friend she’s been when Tayce could have picked anyone to come out here with her.

“You’re not boring, baby,” Tayce turns slowly away from the stars and looks at her steadily, something deep and turbulent in her eyes. 

“I was in a right mood. Talking a lorra crap. Don’t listen to me when I’m all hot and bothered. I’m a stubborn little hound. Dunno what comes out my mouth. I don’t know where that shit comes from.”

“Oh. Um, okay,” Aurora cringes at how uncertain she sounds. “Are you better now?”

“You know I am, Sam,” Tayce bumps her with her shoulder. 

“Okay, good. As long as you don’t hate me or nothing,” Aurora sounds a bit whiny but she can’t help it. 

Tayce is so disarming she keeps accidentally saying things out loud that should be kept in her head. She feels worryingly safe with her.

“If I ever _really_ mean it, believe me, honey, you’ll know,” Tayce smirks, somehow both comforting and threatening, a flash of beautifully straight teeth in the dark.

She nudges Aurora again. Her encouraging smile is such a relief it makes Aurora’s knees weak. 

But she still feels a bit far away, like Aurora might never completely understand her. 

She wants to so badly. 

“And, by the way, you can definitely take a Troll,” Aurora adds emphatically, because Tayce is a bit quiet and it seemed to bother her earlier that she thought Aurora thought she couldn’t.

“Yeah?” Tayce’s head whips to her.

“ _Please_. If _Potter_ can do it, you could do it with your eyes closed,” Aurora scoffs, disdain for Potter her go to. 

“Yeah. I’d wipe the floor with them wouldn’t I?” Tayce is grinning, encouraged, as though Aurora’s opinion of her actually matters.

“Yeah. Potter _and_ the Troll,” she grins back, tentatively nudging Tayce.

Tayce nudges her back, satisfied, and turns to the centaur. 

“Firenze, it’s been a pleasjj. I better get this one to bed. Catch you on the flip side,” she throws him a wave and starts off back the way they came. 

“Um, bye Firenze,” Aurora hurries to keep up with her.

At least she’s walking back to the castle. Aurora didn’t even have to talk her into giving up on the Troll. And she doesn’t march ahead this time. When Aurora catches up she links arms and walks with her, telling her what creatures she thinks are making each of the noises, doing her own impressions of them, whispering them up close in Aurora’s ear after Aurora says she’s worried they might encourage the real creatures if they do them loud, and generally making things a lot less scary. 

“You’re shivering, girl.”

Aurora is focussed down on where her feet are stepping but she can feel Tayce grinning at the side of her head like a heat lamp. 

“Yeah, I told you it’s bloody freezing! I’ve only got a little nightie on under here,”

She glances over and Tayce raises her eyebrows. 

“And I’m terrified off my tits you bloody lunatic!” Aurora exclaims and hits her playfully because she deserves it and Tayce laughs at her. 

“Cwtch in then,” Tayce purrs, buttery and smooth. She opens her huge fur coat and wraps it around Aurora too. There's a warming charm inside as well as her body heat and Aurora melts close gratefully. 

It smells overwhelmingly of Tayce and the fur is soft and tickly against her cheek. 

They work out how to walk in-synch in one coat surprisingly quickly. Their footsteps crunch under them and the noise from the forest is getting quieter as they reach the edge. 

“So why’d you come back then?” Tayce asks airily, forcing casual. 

“Cause I never should’ve left you in the first place! I was being stupid. I just got scared,” Aurora shrugs, embarrassed. “I’m not as good as you when things are scary.” 

“Mmm,” Tayce hums like it’s an interesting discovery, and cuddles her a bit closer under her arm.

Other than the fact that they’re in a dark, terrifying forest, it’s absolute bliss. 

“Thought you'd had enough of me,” Tayce teases, but she’s staring straight ahead and she looks a bit fragile again. 

_“Tayce_. Are you serious?” That’s so ridiculous Aurora almost snorts.

Surprise makes her bold enough to wind herself around Tayce’s waist and give her a little squeeze. Tayce tenses up at first and Aurora worries it was too much. 

But then Tayce hums again and relaxes, cuddling her closer.

“Don’t even joke about that, bitch. I would _never_ ,” Aurora says, embarrassingly over-emphatic. 

When she glances up and Tayce has a triumphant little smile, eyes shining in the dark.

“Good.” 

Aurora looks down at her feet again, Tayce’s pleased certainty making her all warm. Between the flush from that and the delicious warmth of Tayce’s body heat in the coat she’s burning up. The girl is a human warming charm.

Suddenly the night that was cold and scary seems quite lovely. She wouldn’t mind staying out for a little stroll under the moon. 

“You’re so warm,” she says, more of a sigh than she meant it to be. 

“Cause I’m a beast,” Aurora’s still looking where she’s walking but Tayce sounds like she’s grinning. “A hound, I told you. Grrrrrawrrr,” the growl is closer than Aurora expected and Tayce’s lips brush her ear. 

Now she’s shivering again. What a strange night.

Even though Tayce _was_ a bit mad to drag them all out to the Forbidden Forest and it was really dangerous, her friendship is worth more than anything Aurora could have gained by walking away, really. Quite possibly including her life.

When they get back to the dorm Ellie and Asttina are both still up, chatting in Ellie’s bed. 

“Did yous find a Troll then?” Ellie bursts out as soon as they come in. 

“Course we did. No thanks to you disloyal cunts. You’re terrible!” Tayce scoffs at them, a slight smirk to let them know she won’t _really_ hold it against them but still stubborn and aloof and proud. The invitingness Aurora felt curled up with her in her coat is back behind her usual cool flippant ferocity. 

“And just for that weren’t not telling you about it either.” 

“Woah. Did yous really find one?” Ellie asks at the same time Asttina says,

“As if, babe. They didn’t.”

Ellie and Asttina both look to Aurora.

Aurora looks at Tayce. 

“Yeah, course we did,” Aurora pouts proudly. “Don’t be jealous, bitches.” 

Tayce smiles at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


	4. THE GROUP

It’s delicious having private little secrets with Tayce. But it doesn't help the situation with Asttina.

One morning the three of them walk arm in arm to Herbology, with Ellie bringing up the rear because they can only fit three wide. Tayce is in the middle like always and there are a gaggle of second years queuing up for Charms on one side. As they approach there’s not enough space for all three of them to pass. 

Tayce unlinks from Asttina and marches on, arm still hooked through Aurora’s. 

Aurora catches Asttina’s gobsmacked annoyed face. 

It must have been the thing that pushed her over the edge because when Aurora is joking around in Herbology telling her thinking she can get away with a Malkins high street cloak when all the girls are wearing Twillfits is disgusting, she takes it really personally and gets all moody about it. 

Their cloaks are out because it's getting really cold in the greenhouse and it's right there in front of Aurora looking basic. She can’t _not_ say it. Not when Tayce and even Ellie have gorgeous custom Twillfits ones and she spent _days_ doing her mum's old one up into such a close match no one can tell hers isn't right out of their autumn collection. 

That’s what bothers her the most: it's not from lack of money, it’s bad taste. Asttina of all people should know better, with the reputation she has. 

Aurora is a prime example that you can be poor as shit and still have good taste, still work to make outfits that look expensive and get a weekend job to save up and buy nice things. 

“Savage, Aurora,” Asttina brushes past and splashes tenancula venom on Aurora’s bare arm.

“Oops,” she deadpans, glares right at her, and walks away. 

“Ow,” Aurora frowns at the sharp sting, vanishing it as quickly as she can. She peers at her arm. It looks normal but it feels a little tingly where the venom hit. 

“Owww,” she pouts, tearing up, wiping her eyes, her face scrunching up.

“Nasty,” Tayce holds her hand out, beckoning for Aurora’s arm. Aurora gives it to her, already feeling stupid for making a fuss, sniffing, trying to get her tears to stop. 

Tayce mutters something and waves her wand over it. It feels like cooling cream being spread on it, instant relief, even though she can’t see anything. 

“The number of times I fell into poison ivy as a kid, I’m telling you,” Tayce grins. Aurora laughs because she can picture that.

“Thanks,” she pouts, looking at her arm, not quite keeping the wonder out of her voice.

“We can go see Pomfrey after. Make sure your little arm’s not falling off,” Tayce winks. 

“It’s fine,” Aurora feels embarrassed now for crying and making a big deal of it. It was the shock of it as much as anything. One of her fellow Slytherin girls being so brutal.

She pulls her sleeve down over her arm and smiles when she can still feel the cooling spell Tayce did under her sleeve. 

“You don’t need to make a fuss of me,” she sniffs, concentrating on trimming her Spiky Bush. A tiny part of her hopes Tayce doesn’t listen though because it’s quite nice being made a fuss of for once. Having someone who cares enough to bother.

“Better safe than sorry, chicken. How you gonna do your little curly curls with one arm otherwise?” Tayce leans over and fluffs Aurora’s perfectly styled waves, smirking at her. “I’m not helping.” 

Tayce actually has joined her for her getting ready routine quite a few mornings after that first one. Sat in the sink and watched her do her makeup or hair like it’s fascinating, always humming or whistling something, like a comforting human radio. Sometimes helping herself to Aurora’s makeup and asking her what she should put where.

She has no idea why Tayce Black doesn’t have better things to do with her time but it seems rude to ask.

And it’s really satisfying to the part of Aurora that likes everything to be perfect putting makeup on Tayce. She’s the most perfect canvas. Little details Aurora can never quite get right on herself just happen first time on Tayce’s face.

“You don’t have to come with me.” 

“I don’t mind,” Tayce shrugs. 

It feels so presumptuous to make Tayce Black trudge all the way to the hospital wing on her lunch hour but it seems like she genuinely doesn’t.

“What did she do it for anyway?” Aurora looks over at Asttina across the greenhouse, laughing, with Ellie. “It was obviously on purpose.”

“Jealousy is an ugly thing honey...” Tayce mutters, distracted, working on trimming her own Spiky Bush. She holds the shears in one hand and pulls at the spikes experimentally with her fingers. 

“Tayce, don't do it like that!”

“Relax, girl. I can handle it. I love plants and plants love me,” she shrugs glamorously, grabbing hold of a really sharp spike. 

“Tayce! That’s what the shears are for, you hound,” Aurora cringes at how bossy she sounds, as bad as that Veronica Granger. But she’s not about to stand by and be responsible for further damage to Tayce’s lovely hands.

“No way bab-ay. Gorra get this bad boy trimmed and these shears ain’t cutting it, honey.”

“At least put your gloves on. You'll hurt yourself.”

“All right, nan,” Tayce rolls her eyes and reluctantly tugs one glove on with her teeth.

“What’s Asttina jealous of me for, though?” Aurora pouts, watching her across the greenhouse. She can't fathom what someone so graceful and beautiful and fierce could possibly find envious in _her_. 

“You’re my best friend,” Tayce hums, breezily, like it’s obvious, focussed on her plant. 

“What?”

Aurora swears her heart stops for a second, and when it starts again the whole world looks brighter. 

“She wants to be. Bing bang bong, there you go. Arcturus is your uncle, Walburga’s your aunt,” Tayce mutters, engrossed in pulling at her spikes. 

Aurora manages to not say “wow” or “are you sure?” or anything similarly embarrassing out loud, but she feels all warm and fizzy. Almost lightheaded. 

Tayce is trying her best, adorably concentrated, but she’s absolutely butchering her plant. 

“Give it here,” Aurora takes her shears and helps her because they’re a lot like the big scissors she uses to cut dress patterns and she's done hers already. 

“You're my best friend too,” she confesses softly, eyes firmly on the plant, feeling herself blush. 

“Little old me?” Tayce teases, pulling two hanging vines from the wall around herself like a boa, hoping up onto a low shelf, and posing. Then she flings them off, jumps down, and rolls her eyes. “Course I am, bitch. Who else?” 

Tayce smiles brightly and flicks her hair over her shoulder. 

Aurora wonders whether she's ever doubted herself in her life. 

Tayce is also wearing her school tie around her head today for no reason Aurora can determine. 

But she's making it look good. Aurora wouldn’t be surprised if other girls start wearing their ties as headbands, though she doubts they’d pull it off as well. Tayce makes everything she wears look like fashion. 

After class Aurora’s arm is itching quite intensely, even under the cooling spell, and it’s turned purple. So when they get up to the Entrance Hall, Tayce and Aurora break off from the others.

“Girls! Where you going? Lunch is this way…?” Asttina calls after them.

“Hospital wing. _Somebody_ got a bit fresh with their venom, didn’t they?” Tayce gives Asttina a disapproving look, like she's no better than a Gryffindor.

“Not my fault she got in the way,” Asttina shrugs, nostrils flaring with disdain. “She’s in my way a lot lately.”

“Watch where you’re going then babe,” Tayce’s eyes flare. “Any more accidents, somebody might get hurt.” She curls her fingers around her wand, clearly a threat.

Aurora’s heart pounds. She doesn’t know how to feel about Tayce jumping to her defense all the time without her even having to ask. She doesn’t know what she’s done to deserve it. 

“Can’t speak for herself?” Asttina crosses her arms, confrontational. “Cute.”

Aurora doesn’t want Tayce to get in a fight with another friend over her. Even if she wants to because for some reason she really does think of Aurora as her best friend. 

Aurora is still reeling from that revelation, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s too much to comprehend. Something that amazing couldn’t really be hers. 

Aurora is also fed up of Asttina thinking she can treat her like shit for something that’s not even her fault.

“What do you want me to say, bitch?” she crosses her arms and confronts her right back. 

“If you need more attention, you don’t have to do all that, y’know. Just step up your look from that bloody Cloaks R Us shit. Dis-gusting,” she looks her up and down. 

Tayce looks proud of her, smirking softly. 

“Rude.” 

“True though, in’t it?” 

“Whatever,” Asttina shrugs, refusing to accept it. “At the end of the day, all that matters is I look good.”

“Debatable,” Aurora sneers. 

A little bit of fear shoots through her when Asttina’s eyes flash and she goes for her wand. 

She can say bitchy things all day but if it comes down to an actual duel, she’ll try but she gets intimidated. Especially by somebody as fierce as Asttina.

“Come on girls, this is boring now,” Tayce links arms with Aurora, territorial, stepping just a bit in front of her, twirling her wand in one hand. 

“If she finds me intimidating, it’s not my fault,” Asttina’s eyes flash.

“Girl, you’re being sour and there’s no need. Aurora’s my best friend.”

Wow. Tayce has said it twice now. She’s saying it _in front_ of the other girls. Aurora doesn’t know what to do with herself.

“It is what it is, babes, you know? No point being a bitter cow about it,” Tayce smiles angelically at Asttina.

“There's four of us here. She might walk like a sack of spuds,” Tayce casually gestures to Ellie. “But Goyle seems nice enough. Right girl?”

“Ehh, yeah I am actually, Black, ya wee cunt. All of yous have underestimated me since we got here.” 

“There we go then! Problem solved. Best friend for me, best friend for you, everybody’s happy,” Tayce shrugs at Asttina, leaning into Aurora.

She notices Ellie’s frown and smiles beautifully at her. 

“Nothing personal, babeh. Just calls ‘em like I sees ‘em. No offense, like.”

“Whatever hun. I actually _prefer_ sitting with Ellie? She’s better at Transfiguration than either of you bitches,” Asttina insists, proud and haughty. 

Ellie looks pleasantly surprised. She still doesn’t look too thrilled with Tayce but the thing about Tayce is it’s kind of impossible to hate her, and the thing about Ellie is she still really wants to fit in and be liked by everyone. 

Aurora gets that. She doesn’t blame Ellie swallowing anything she might want to say to Tayce and putting a smile on.

“Well! There we go then. Lovely jubbly. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Dunno what we're all standing yer whinging for,” Tayce puts her wand away and glares imperiously at Asttina until she does the same.

“Hospital wing then, girls?” she invites them, an olive branch.

“You got me good with that venom, bitch,” Aurora offers too, trying to make light of it and help Tayce with her efforts to bring the group together. 

“My arm’s literally purple!” She laughs at herself, hopefully being non-threatening to Asttina’s ego. 

Asttina links arms with Ellie. 

“Lead the way then, bitches.”

The four of them march in unison up to the hospital wing.

“What if it’s serious?” Asttina jokes. “Hope Pomfrey can save you, Greengrass. Wouldn't be the same without your sour face across the dorm.”

It’s still a bit bitchy but more playful than mean. 

Tayce pisses herself laughing. Aurora elbows her in her skinny little waist and mutters, 

“Oi, thanks, bitch.”

“What?! You have got a sour face!” She cracks up again just saying it. “Pew pew pew pew,” she mimes wand movements, “Shots fired.”

“I might be a sour faced bitch but at least _my_ cloak is designer,” Aurora shrugs, deciding sour faced is something she'll have to own so they can't use it against her. If they knew how much she didn’t like it they'd be saying it all the time just to get a reaction. 

“Does it even count if _you’re_ the designer?” Ellie mutters, the shady little cow. “The construction is good, doll, but I’ve never seen that in Twillfits.”

Asttina cackles triumphantly. 

“Oooo, she got you, hun.”

“Don't pretend you don’t wish you had an Aurora original, bitch,” Aurora blusters, heart pounding, blushing at being found out.

“I do. It’s cute. Nicer than mine,” Tayce insists loyally, even though hers is gorgeous and the most expensive one Twillfit sells. Aurora remembers the price from lusting after it in his catalogue. 

No one seems to be judging Aurora as much as she feared though.

Even though shady little Ellie is a dark horse who just stripped away another big piece of Aurora’s armour, and has left her nauseatingly vulnerable to being judged, she’s sort of just happy they’re all getting along so well.

After that they're all proper friends. They still say bitchy things to each other but it becomes more affectionate. Things aren’t tense. They even start to feel like those real _friend_ friends Aurora hoped to find.

Asttina officially enlists Ellie Goyle as her best friend, not just the leftover option. Ellie’s thrilled to be taken more seriously in the group, and she’s actually really fun the more Aurora gets to know her. They both are. Aurora finds herself starting to accidentally be herself around them both too, emboldened every time it turns out better than she was expecting. The four of them from the dorm become an unstoppable little unit, walking down the halls in twos. Turning heads when they pass in the corridors. 

They save most of their bitchiness for Potter, Granger and Weasley, when they try their luck with the sass. The Gryffindors are usually the ones who start it but they're so tragic it's hard not to tell them what they need to do better whenever they see them. They’re sort of walking provocation just by existing. 

And Aurora gets as much of Tayce Black’s attention as she wants. It’s amazing. There's something about being around Tayce. She's not just breathtaking, she’s more _alive_ than everyone else. It's addictive to be around. You never know what's coming and you always want to. 

It seems like she was really serious about the best friend thing too. 

Aurora keeps being surprised every day Tayce doesn't lose interest in her. It makes her feel better about _herself_ that someone she thinks is so amazing is, for some unknown reason, finding the feeling mutual.

Everyone in school starts expecting them to come as a pair. Even people in other houses notice. That big mouth Laura Chaney from Ravenclaw keeps joking that they’re _very_ close. 

The judgement in her tone makes Aurora panic and feel weird even though she’s not sure exactly why. So she just gives her withering looks while Tayce tells her to get her mind out of the gutter, whatever that’s supposed to mean. 

Chaney likes to think she's clever but she's obviously just jealous. It’s not only the Slytherins who’d do anything for Tayce Black to look twice at them, to consider them worth her discerning attention beyond pleasantries in the corridors. 

If Chaney’s so observant of how close they are, it’s because she’s _looking_ . And if people are looking and talking about her for something _good_ for once, then Aurora’s doing something right.

Besides, Chaney sits next to that shoeless weirdo Ginny Lovegood most of the time, and they don’t seem to like each other much. She's probably just desperate for a bit of sane conversation, bless her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


	5. CHRISTMAS HOLS

It hits Aurora harder than she expected going home for Christmas. 

She misses Hogwarts and all the girls so much. Especially Tayce, who she’s used to spending all her waking hours either next to or thinking about. She misses the amazing food, so much richer than the crap she eats at home, her comfy featherbed with its gorgeous emerald green bedding and drapes to shut the world out, she even misses struggling to read her homework. 

She’s never particularly liked home, always felt like she’s better than where she's from, but after escaping it, coming back to the banality feels even more shit. She’s only been back a few hours and she’s already counting down the days.

Everything seems mind numbingly disappointing and lifeless without Tayce around. She notices how comfortable and confident she was getting with Tayce to pull her out of her head, bouncing off her vibe. It hits her as soon as she’s without her. 

The nagging thoughts and doubts set in with a vengeance and she’s surprised how different it was without them. Like a lobster in a pot it happened so gradually it was starting to feel normal to be happy and comfortable and even a bit silly sometimes instead of worried most of the time.

She tries to keep herself busy, working on the robes and dresses she’s in the middle of that she didn’t bring to Hogwarts. Shuts herself in her room and imagines it’s her little workshop. Even though it’s only second hand material she’s cobbled together from things her mum doesn’t wear anymore, she imagines it’s couture. 

She tries transfiguring some of the shitty bits of fabric into material that looks more glamorous and expensive, but even when she manages it, her spells aren’t strong enough to hold the new form for long.

A week into the Christmas holidays the most beautiful grand white eagle owl Aurora’s ever seen taps their window.

It’s carrying an envelope with the Black seal. Aurora’s heart kicks up, the world suddenly feeling exciting again. 

She argues with the owl because it won’t give up the envelope until Aurora feeds it, but it’s very fussy and will only eat smoked salmon. Aurora cringes at how annoyed her mum will be. She knows it’s expensive and they only have it for a treat and the owl gobbles most of the pack. 

“Letter from one of your new friends? That’s nice. Lovely bird they’ve got,” her mum swans into the kitchen making her jump. She eyes the owl, nosy, tries to peer at the envelope. 

Aurora hides it under the table. It’s the only bit of Tayce she gets all holidays. She wants to keep it for herself.

“You haven't told me yet. Which girls you making friends with?”

“Slytherins, mum,” she rolls her eyes. “All the girls in my year.”

She thought her mum and stepdad would be so proud of her sorting. But after a  _ well done _ that honestly sounded quite offensively surprised, her mum’s just started going on about what  _ else _ she should be doing. 

Sometimes it feels like it’s impossible to make her happy, or proud of her. 

Then again she’s seen her mother happy about twice in her life. Being so miserable in general, of course Aurora’s not going to make her happy. 

She’s no Tayce Black, swanning about making everyone smile without even trying.

“You make sure you get the right to girls like you, Aurora, your future depends on those connections you make at school.” 

“Yes mum, I know.”

“If you can’t be charming, you can at least be useful to them.”

“I know mum. I will,” Aurora rolls her eyes, silently offended, and swallows the way she wants to snap at her that she’s charming enough for  _ Tayce Black _ actually. See how she likes that. 

She’s so excited to read her letter she can hardly eat, barely makes it through breakfast and her mum digging and nagging to find out how things are going in Slytherin. She runs up to her room to read it as soon as she can escape.

It’s technically her brother’s room too, but he’s spending Christmas with his girlfriend. They haven’t even seen him. 

Aurora doesn’t blame him. She wouldn’t be here either if she had a better option. 

He sent them a card with a note about the work he’s doing with the Goblins and a line congratulating Aurora on Slytherin. Her mum has it in the middle of the fireplace like it’s holding his place for him. 

Aurora wouldn’t be surprised if he marries his girlfriend soon and never has to bother setting foot at home again. 

When Aurora tears open her letter it’s just a plain note card stamped with the Black coat of arms, but it’s got Tayce’s familiar rounded letters inside. 

_ Auroraaaaaaa!  _

_ Bored outve my mind. Wish you were here babehhh. _

_ Family parties driving me mad. Dry as fuck. Give me STRENGTH. _

_ Miss you bitch!! _

_ xxx _

Aurora shouldn’t have expected anything more profound. Should have guessed letter writing wouldn’t be one of Tayce’s strong points. She’s not the type for long detailed correspondence. 

It’s still like oxygen to hear from her. To remember her life at Hogwarts as Tayce Black’s best friend is  _ real _ . It feels so far away in her dingey living room listening to her stepdad complain about the wireless. 

She’s pleased enough reading over those brief lines with a little smile, especially the  _ miss you _ and the  _ wish you were here _ , which make her feel all warm and tingly. 

She wishes she was there too. Christmas at the Blacks’ is probably breathtaking. She’d  _ die _ to go to even  _ one _ of those parties Tayce is complaining about. 

But when she goes to put the letter away, something else falls out the envelope. 

It’s the cutest little white silk bow with gold trim. There’s a note attached with more scribbles from Tayce. 

_ Took this off our tree. Reckon it would look better in your hair. Take a picture for me.  _

Aurora is running downstairs before she’s even finished reading. 

“Mum, can I borrow your camera?!”

There’s something warm and excited in her stomach that Tayce would see something pretty in her gorgeous expensive Christmas and think of Aurora. Not just fleetingly either, enough to write it out and send it and tell her what to do with it.

She wants to take the cutest picture to send Tayce and impress her. 

She wants to be a person who belongs with Tayce Black’s beautiful things, in Tayce Black’s exciting world. 

“Who’s it from then?” 

Aurora’s horrified to see her mum has picked up the card while she’s fussing with the little bow in the mirror. 

“Just a Christmas card from my friend,” she mutters self consciously.

“Aurora, this is the Black crest,” her mum is staring at it. 

“Yeah, she's a Black,” Aurora frowns at herself in the mirror, wishing her mum would leave her alone so she can concentrate on taking a good picture to send Tayce. 

“ _ The Black girl  _ is your friend?”

“Her  _ name _ is Tayce. Give it back mum, it’s  _ private _ ,” she blushes, snatching the card back and holding it to her chest. 

“First name terms! That’s wonderful,” Her mum looks giddy. 

“You make sure you get in close with her. That’s a good friend to have. Aurora, you play your cards right, you could be in a very good situation there.”

“ _ Okay _ , leave me alone mum, I’m  _ doing something _ .”

“That’s very pretty. Is that real gold?” her mum’s eyes fix on the bow. “Where did you get that?” 

She looks back at the Black crest, intent.

“Did your friend send it you?”

“Mum,” Aurora’s whole body burns with embarrassment. “Stop being  _ nosy _ .”

She pushes past her up to her room, even though the mirror there isn’t as good. 

“ _ You look after my camera or you’re replacing it!”  _ Rings after her up the stairs.

Aurora doesn’t know why it feels so private. It’s only a little bow. Even if it  _ is _ real gold. It just  _ does _ though. She wants it to be something special between her and Tayce. 

And she  _ definitely _ doesn’t want her mum’s opinion spoiling it.

Her mum is so annoying. Aurora doesn’t like thinking about Tayce like that. 

Even though she thought it herself when she first got to Hogwarts, how useful it would be if she could make Tayce Black like her. 

Now she’s actually  _ friends _ with her, it feels so wrong. Makes her want to shout at her mum, and anyone else who would do the same, to protect Tayce from anyone who would use her like that. 

Aurora spends the rest of the afternoon styling her hair and posing for photos. She sends Tayce one of her moving from tossing her hair proudly showing off the bow into a smiley little pout. She really hopes Tayce likes it. She adds a note that says: 

_ This better not have garnished a decapitated house elf at any point. Do I look cute?  _

_ Miss you too you absolute hound. Way too quiet without all your shenanigans. Can’t wait til we’re back. xxxxxxxxxxx _

She reads it back over five times, wishing she sounded as cool as Tayce, even in a letter. 

She definitely overdid it with the kisses, but she was feeling sentimental.

She adds a PS asking for the gossip from the parties so she won’t be left out of chats when they go back to school. She knows Asttina and Ellie and half of Slytherin will have probably been at the parties with their families.

She also pops out to the village shop to get Tayce some nice chocolates and pretty paper to wrap them in as a little present, because by the time Tayce gets the letter back off the village owl it’ll be Christmas. 

She wishes there were nicer shops with better options so she could buy Tayce something beautiful and interesting and unique that she’d  _ love _ . But the best of her shitty little village will have to do.

She spends all the money she saved to get her lip potion on them but it doesn't matter. 

Aurora wears the little bow the first day back in January and Tayce’s smile is so bright when she sees it, Aurora blushes from across the Great Hall.

It becomes Aurora’s thing the rest of the year, wearing a little bow in her hair. She wears it until it’s coming apart because of Tayce’s satisfied smile every time she sees Aurora’s got it on. 

Tayce has to take it out for her eventually when it’s falling apart, because it was meant for a Christmas tree. 

“Noooooo,” Aurora whines. 

“This bow has given up the ghost, girl.”

“Don’t throw it out. Tayce, I can still wear it.”

“Stop your moaning little lady,” Tayce’s fingers comb through her loose curls. 

“If you like it so much, I’ll find you another one,” she smirks, smug and pleased. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


	6. BEST FRIENDS

The necklace Aurora ends up making Tayce is a best friends pendant. 

She finishes it over Christmas but takes weeks longer to work up the courage to give it to her. She’s nervous it might seem presumptuous, even though Tayce was the one who said they were best friends first.

It took ages to make. Aurora wanted to make sure it was perfect. She used the prettiest stone from the gemstone collection she's built since she was five, because when would there be a more important occasion for it?

Tayce has forgotten all about it by the time Aurora says “Got something for you,” shyly, on a rainy weekend when Ellie and Asttina are down in the Common Room playing chess and Tayce is curled up on her bed glaring at a piece of parchment for daring to require her to write an essay when she doesn’t feel like it. 

Aurora’s hands shake giving the necklace to Tayce, so worried she’ll think its stupid. 

For a few breathless seconds she don’t know what she was thinking, how she could dare be so bold. Certain Tayce must have changed her mind since she said they were best friends, since she said _why not_ to Aurora making her a necklace, even though there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest she would’ve done either. 

“For little old me? Ooooo. This is cute, bitch!”

When Tayce grins at it, happily surprised, Aurora realises she was holding her breath. 

“ _Best_ ,” Tayce reads the swirly font set into the stone, frowning. 

It’s subtle, stylish. Aurora made sure it adds to the beauty of the design. It’s not basic or cheesy or anything. But it's there. 

“I've got the other one that says ‘ _friends’_ ,” she mumbles self consciously, sure she’s bright red, looking at the other one in her hand cause she can't even look at Tayce. 

“They're matching, look. They fit together,” she shows Tayce how she split the stone with her wand into two cool shapes that come together to make a heart. 

She holds her breath in the silence as Tayce’s discerning gaze assesses it. 

Tayce drops the delicate chain in her palm with a quietly pleased smile. 

"Put it on for me then."

Aurora is light headed with relief. Tayce turns around and waits patiently. Aurora brushes the silky curtain of Tayce’s hair over her shoulder carefully, feeling like she shouldn't be allowed to be touching it. 

As she does the clasp up, she watches the little hairs on the back of Tayce’s neck stand on end in the cold. 

The necklace falls against Tayce’s throat perfectly, just like she pictured the hours she spent up late making it. 

She takes a moment to be proud of her craftsmanship as Tayce turns side to side posing, arranging her stack of necklaces so it sits on top, pride of place. 

“This looks so good boo boo,” Tayce shimmies her shoulders. “You got the eye, girl. Proper little designer.”

“Thanks,” Aurora mumbles shyly. “Really? You’re not taking the piss?”

Tayce Black doesn't compliment people often. So to get this response makes Aurora so proud. 

“Yeeehhhhhsssss,” Tayce trills in a funny high pitched voice. 

“You don’t have to say that,” Aurora looks away, smiling.

“Oh I know,” Tayce smirks. “I’m nice but I’m not _that_ nice. You got the eye, girl, I’m telling you. It’s lush.”

Tayce knows fashion and style as well as Aurora herself. They talk about it all the time. Her own look is sometimes a bit chaotic and rough around the edges but that’s mainly from tumbling out of bed five minutes before class and not caring. Soon as she takes a minute to put herself together she looks flawless. She _knows_ wizarding fashion, has _taste_ , and her family can afford the best. 

So if she agrees, if she thinks it’s worth something, maybe Aurora’s not crazy to think she might actually be really really good at designing and making things. Even though she’s not from the right background and nobody else cares about her designs yet. 

Maybe one day people will. 

“If you like that, you should see the dress robes I’m sketching,” she gushes, so excited she forgets to be modest. 

She doesn’t want to boast, it’s just thrilling having somebody worthwhile to actually share it all with. She can’t help it.

“They’ll be so good if I can find the right material to do the pleats.”

“Go on then, show me.”

Tayce bounces onto her stomach on Aurora’s bed, grabbing enthusiastically at her portfolio of draft sketches when Aurora shyly gets it out of her trunk. Making encouraging “ooo”s and “ahh”s as soon as she turns the first page. 

All Aurora wants to do is impress her. Impress everyone. Show them she’s worth more than the hand she was dealt in life. 

Tayce screams when she sees things she likes and wriggles and rolls and kicks around on Aurora’s bed excitedly, flicking through the sketches like a mad woman, getting them all in the wrong order. But her comments on the little details Aurora was hoping she’d notice are so nice and so deeply satisfying Aurora doesn’t even mind. 

Aurora’s never shown all her sketches to anyone before. She’s never had someone willing to listen whose opinion she cared about enough to bother. She couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction from the first person to see them. 

When Tayce calms down she reclines against Aurora’s headboard like she owns it, pulling her favourites out of the pile and telling Aurora she bagsises first to borrow them when they’re done. 

“Tayce, I’ve not even made them yet. I might not finish them.”

“You should.” Tayce’s eyes burn bright and encouraging over the portfolio. “You got a gift, boo boo. Talent like this, you gotta let it shine.”

Aurora blushes uncontrollably, unable to process literally the nicest thing anyone has ever said to her. 

She frowns at herself and concentrates on what she needs to do better, to ground herself.

“One day I’ll have the fabric to do them proper though. I might just wait. What’s the point in making them half shit, you know?” Aurora shrugs, touching her design for a crushed velvet cloak wistfully, and immediately regretting reminding Tayce how poor she is. 

There’s no point creating a new life for herself if she’s going to let herself be seen as the poor girl, the charity case bitch. She doesn’t want any excuses. 

Maybe she could try sneaking out to Hogsmede on the weekends and get a job to save up for some materials and things. It would take ages to save enough for the kind of materials she _really_ wants to work with but she could at least get stuff that’s not cut up scraps of her mum’s old clothes. There’s a limit to how many of them are reworkable and she’s pretty much reached it making herself stuff for first year. 

“Mmm,” Tayce hums to herself, sounding thoughtful, seemingly distracted by the designs.

She’s messing up all Aurora’s pillows which is a bit annoying. But it also means they might smell like her later, which will be nice. Tayce always smells so nice.

“I should design something for you.”

She says it as soon as she thinks it. Tayce has a trunk full of expensive fancy shit so it’s not like she _needs_ anything from her, but Aurora knows she could make Tayce look even better than she does already.

Evidently she’s gotten too used to Tayce Black being her little canvas in the mornings.

Tayce looks delighted about the idea though, her eyes lighting up, kicking the bed, restless with excitement. 

“Go on then, gorgeous. What’ve you got for me?”

Aurora gets out fresh parchment and starts on a new design. She does a sketch of Tayce and they come up with ideas together for the look. 

It might be the most fun she’s ever had doing anything. Tayce is beaming too, arms wrapped around one of Aurora’s pillows, peering over her shoulder, practically lying in her lap. 

“Oi, where's your one?”

“Hm?” Aurora looks up from her drawing, tongue between her teeth from concentrating.

Tayce plays with the best friend necklace Aurora’s eyes have kept darting to proudly every five seconds since she put it on her. 

“Thought we were gonna be twinny winnies.”

“Oh. I didn't put it on yet,” Aurora blushes and puts the sketch aside to crawl across her bed to where it’s nestled safely in her trunk. “Wanted to make sure you liked them first.”

Not that she really thought Tayce would change her mind after her pleased reaction. She just worried about looking too keen. She still feels a bit silly about them. 

But it’s not so bad with Tayce happily wearing hers, making herself comfortable in Aurora’s bed with her sketches spread all over the duvet. As much as Aurora’s stupid brain wants to try and find a reason why this won’t last because she doesn’t deserve it, it’s a pretty perfect afternoon.

“Bitch, I love ‘em. They’re lush. Can’t believe you made ‘em.”

Tayce takes Aurora’s from her hand and beams at her beautifully. “Turn around, then.”

“Thanks for giving me ‘ _best’_ ,” she snickers. Aurora sees her eyeing the ‘ _friends’_ on hers before she turns.

“Well, you are the best,” Aurora mumbles self consciously, lifting up her hair.

“Hmm, I dunno about that, girl,” Tayce says close behind her, almost in her ear, settling the necklace against her throat.

“Please,” Aurora scoffs, fighting tingles. “Ask anybody in Slytherin. Anyone in the whole bloody _school_.” 

“Not everyone,” Tayce hums matter of factly behind her.

“Okay, everyone who _matters_ ,” Aurora insists stubbornly. “You are to me, anyway.”

She realises as she hears herself that it sounds a bit much.

“ _Well_ ,” Tayce sounds pleased, though. Close enough Aurora feels her breath tickle her hairline.

“That's alright then,” she has a big smile in her voice.

Tayce’s fingertips brush the back of her neck a lot doing up the clasp, she takes a long time over it, and Aurora has to keep suppressing shivers. 

Aurora doesn’t take her necklace off all year, not even to sleep or shower. She charmed them indestructible so she wouldn’t have to. Every time she sees it, or sees the one she made nestled among Tayce’s collection of chains, she's amazed this is really her life.

///

In February the castle is blanketed in snow. It makes Hogwarts look so beautiful Aurora finds herself walking around in awe. 

Some days she still can’t believe she’s really here. Thriving in Slytherin. She’s come a long way already and she’s really proud of herself.

She always feels a bit less confident when she’s alone without the girls by her side though. Like this afternoon, walking back from the Owlery through the courtyard by herself. It’s only been fifteen minutes and she’s already lonely with just her own company, nothing to distract her from her thoughts. 

She goes on her own so no one hears her give the muggle address when she writes back to her dad. He doesn’t write much but when he does she opens them behind her spelled shut drapes so no one sees the muggle chocolate bars her stepmum puts in or the pictures her little sister draws of Aurora standing on a castle in a pointy hat waving a star on a stick. 

As far as everyone at Hogwarts is concerned, Aurora just has an older brother who left Ravenclaw a year ago and is off working with the Goblins, and that’s how she wants it to stay.

She snuggles down in her scarf against the snowy chill out in the courtyard and purposely doesn't look in any castle windows she passes so she won't see anything she’s tempted to stop and pick a fault with without the distraction of the girls.

Suddenly she gets hit with a snowball from behind. 

It makes her gasp and winds her a little bit, right in the middle of her back. 

Shock and dread go through her. Just when she thought she was starting to become a bit popular in school. She shouldn't have got so comfy. That’s what you get when you lower your guard.

She whips around, trying to look fierce rather than prissy.

She doesn’t see anyone. 

It better not be Potter, trying to pick her off while she’s on her own.

She conjures up a snowball ready to throw back, because if she's gonna be attacked she’ll give as good as she got. She turns in a circle with her wand out, snowball at the ready. 

“Oi oi saveloy!” Tayce pops up from behind a wall. “Look at your face! At ease, bitch.”

She’s laughing at Aurora warmly, in a form fitting snow suit and fluffy Russian ushanka style hat, perfectly white against her dark hair, looking like a winter model.

Relief flows through Aurora, and just enough annoyance at Tayce’s immaturity and violent ways to shout “Oi yourself,” and throw the prepared snowball at her. 

It’s a testament to how far their friendship has come. A few months ago she’d never dream of throwing a snowball at Tayce Black. 

Tayce blasts it to pieces before it reaches her, grinning pleased. Her gorgeous owl is perched on her arm with a huge package.

“You wanna be a bit nicer to me, missy. Guess who got post from mama and daddy-o from their trip to ol' Par-ee?"

“Paris?” Aurora’s jaw drops. “As in fashion capital of the world, Paris?”

“Yes, bitch! The very same,” Tayce is bouncing on her heels.

“Casual,” Aurora can’t imagine having the kind of life where those are the sorts of packages you get from your parents. Her mum hasn’t even bothered to write yet since Christmas. 

Not that she wants to read a page on what she should be doing better and how annoying her stepdad’s been, but when your friends get care packages every week it’s nice to know you’ve not been forgotten completely.

“They’re cute. They like sending me stuff,” Tayce smiles fondly. “They wanted to send a note for Dumbles so I could go with.”

Tayce _would_ have the type of parents who offer to pull her out of lessons to go on glamorous holidays. 

“Really? Tayce! Why didn’t you go?”

Tayce shrugs smiling enigmatically. “Been to Paris a million times. Rather stay yer.”

Aurora can’t imagine having a life so exciting you get _bored_ of _Paris_.

“Got ‘em to send me a couple a bits and bobs instead.”

“Ooo la la, jealous,” Aurora smiles, hoping she just looks happy for her and not bitter. “Go on then, what did you get? I bet it's good.”

“Come and open it with me and find out, babehh. I gorra feeling you might like it,” Tayce wiggles her eyebrows playfully.

Aurora doesn’t know what that means but something about the shine in Tayce’s eyes makes her feel particularly mischievous. 

She’s not _just_ a stuck up bitch like half the school thinks. She can be silly and have fun as much as any other girl her age when she feels like it.

When Tayce walks a bit closer Aurora acts on a whim, conjuring up another snowball and chucking it at her. 

This one hits because she’s not expecting it. Tayce splutters in surprise, snowflakes on her cheek, making a happily outraged noise.

“Aurora Greengrass, you absolute _hound!_ When I come bearing gifts and all,” she beams, delighted, a battle firing up in her stormy eyes. “Right. Come on then, you little terror.”

"Do your worst, _missy_ ," Aurora teases back, grinning at her.

Tayce is always over excited for the opportunity to let a bit of her wild energy loose. 

Aurora knew she would be, and maybe that’s why she threw it too. Because it’s fun to be stupid and chaotic sometimes but also because being a good friend means letting your best friend have a snowball fight with you when you can tell she really wants one, even if you’ve done your hair really nice today. 

Tayce’s owl flaps his wings fussily and hovers above them, guarding the package, while Tayce scoops up two handfuls of snow with her gloved hands, ignoring her wand completely, and chucks them enthusiastically at Aurora, laughing. 

They have a playful duel that ends with Tayce charging Aurora and tackling her to the snow with as much overwhelming exuberance as her brother used to when he was twelve and Aurora was five. They’re both weak with laughter. Tayce’s poise and elegance are out the window, no care for being delicate other than a hastily muttered cushioning charm as she knocks Aurora on her back. All gangly limbs, gawky and giggling, snow in her lashes and drops of it melting off her fur hat, framing her face like a winter angel. 

It makes Aurora’s breath catch, on her back in the snow looking up at her. From more than just being winded by the fall.

“All right, snow queen. I surrender,” Aurora smiles up at Tayce, feeling weirdly shy. 

“We better go in before you melt.” Aurora reaches up, pulls a strand of hair off her lip and tucks it behind her ear. 

Tayce blinks at her, wild eyes softening, and Aurora realises it might have been too intimate a thing to do for someone else. She wasn’t thinking, caught in the spell of her attention.

“Could say the same about you, frosty bitch.”

Tayce winks and sprinkles powdery snow over Aurora’s face, making her splutter, and then gets off her middle and offers her a hand up. 

They both grin at each other and walk inside arm in arm, casting drying charms on each other. Tayce is radiating happiness, like a little kid who’s just played in the snow, and Aurora’s glad she indulged her, even though it’s messier than she usually likes to get. She had fun too. It’s nice to be silly sometimes.

She probably won’t get her hair back as good as it was but she can hide in the dorm for the rest of today if it's a disaster Sleekeasy's can't solve, so it’s not like it really matters.

Tayce tears open her package when they get back to the dorm, ripping open the bags of fancy French bon bons and expensive boxes of chocolates to share with the girls. 

Asttina and Ellie gathered to have a nose as soon as they saw the box. Turns out it was shrunk for the owl to carry. When Tayce taps the already huge package it gets even bigger, nearly the size of a trunk. Tayce gives her a knowing smile and Aurora can’t fathom why.

Tayce rips open the letter from her parents and reads voraciously, skimming pages of gorgeous elegant calligraphy. Aurora can’t imagine what her parents are saying in all that. It’s only been two months since Christmas. She doubts she’d ever get a letter that long off her parents even if she didn’t go home again for the rest of her time at Hogwarts. 

When she’s distributed the sweets evenly, Tayce calls a House Elf to put a big box of French cheeses in the fridge for her.

Tayce is so lucky, having parents who go on exciting holidays to cool places and send her presents from their travels and long, interested letters. Not that Aurora would expect any less for Tayce Black. But it’s still cool to get to see it with her own eyes, even as a bystander. As jealous as she is, she’s also so genuinely happy for her. Tayce deserves it.

Then Tayce gets to the bottom of the box. She puts her hands in it and looks up at Aurora, barely able to contain her excitement. 

“Alright, girls. Tell me now. Have you ever in your _life_ seen such stunning fabric?”

She pulls her hands out full of the most beautiful, expensive looking, fashionable collection of fabrics Aurora has ever seen. Yards of intricate patterns woven on silks, satins, and velvets. Fine gold and silver thread, some rolls with tiny little rubies, emeralds and sapphires sewn through. Witch Weekly would have a field day. 

Aurora is practically salivating. All that stunning fabric probably costs more than both her parents _houses_. 

“Wow. Tayce, they're gorgeous,” Aurora sighs, swallowing her longing like a good friend, jealousy clawing up her throat. 

“Well, good thing you think so, cause they're for you, bitch! Surprise!” Tayce grins and holds out her arms, nudging the box towards Aurora with her hip. “Happy February, little miss designer.”

“What?” Aurora's jaw drops, brain stalling. “Are you being serious? Tayce, don’t take the piss…” 

Her heart pounds. It’s too nice. There’s no way.

“Might've told my mum you’ve been known to make a garment or two,” Tayce shrugs, teasing it out, enjoying Aurora’s amazement as much as she enjoyed smashing snow in her face. 

“Said you show a lorra promise. Asked her to pick up a couple of threads for you since she was in good ol' Par-ee, fashion capital of the world and all." 

Aurora’s mouth is hanging open in amazement. 

“Your fashion takeover begins, baby. Now you can make all your designs.”

Tayce looks all pleased with herself. Aurora feels like she might faint.

“You're joking,” Aurora stares at the box, ears rushing, at Tayce grinning at her generously.

She thought Tayce was barely listening when she talked about materials the other day. 

But to have done all this...it’s almost scary, how she did it without Aurora realising. It makes her worry what else she hasn’t noticed. 

And it’s way too generous for her to even process. She could make her whole collection three times over from this fabric. She could make things more beautiful than anything Twillfit has in his windows. She could make witches _gag_ when they see what she can do with this.

“Wow.” Ellie whistles. “Chuck a bit my way if you feel like sharing, doll,” she jokes, looking jealous. “That’s proper nice, Tayce. Aurora, you’re dead lucky, gal.”

“I know,” Aurora says in awe, not sure how to even begin to thank Tayce. Still stunned. It’s too much. 

“Come and have a look then,” Tayce’s eyes are shining, getting such a kick out of how taken aback Aurora is. “Don’t just stand there like a pretty little lemon.”

Aurora approaches the fabrics cautiously like they might bite. She runs her hands over a few of them and they’re soft as butter, slipping through her fingers. The nicest things she's ever touched. 

She accidentally caresses Tayce’s hand under one of the folds and quickly snatches her hand back.

“Tayce are you sure? I can’t. This is too nice.”

“Course, babeh! What else am I gonna do with ‘em?”

“This must have cost your parents so much, though,” she burns with a cocktail of embarrassment and pride at the thought of Tayce asking her parents for all this just for _her_.

“They don’t mind. They love buying stuff. They'd only spend it on brie otherwise.”

Aurora can’t fathom having so much money that doing something like this is a fun little gift. 

Although she’s in the same dorm with Tayce, the life of high society purebloods really is a whole other world. Although this seems beyond to Asttina and Ellie too. They both look surprised and impressed. So maybe it’s not high society at all, it’s just Tayce.

“She’s a real seamstress now, girls.” She grins as Aurora digs through the box looking at everything. She can’t help herself. It’s all stunning. She can’t stop touching it. “Bitch you better do me free robes when you’re famous.”

“I’ll make you anything you want.” Aurora would anyway, because nothing would make her happier than getting to dress Tayce up in her designs. As gorgeous as Tayce always is, Aurora can see little ways she could step up her look to be even more perfect, and she can’t wait to show her.

But even if Tayce wasn’t an ideal model, Aurora would make her anything after _this_. 

This is that friendship she dreamed about. This is so much more than she even dared hope for. She didn’t know friends this kind and loving even _existed._

“Hello, me too, if you're offering,” Asttina butts in, not shy about rooting through the fabric. “I’ll take a robe out of this one,” she holds a gold up to her chin and twirls in it. “Thanks babe.”

“And you too El?” She’s hanging back but Aurora can tell she wants to have a rummage.

"I'm alright chick. I can sew too, ya know. I like to stick to my aesthetic.”

“Yeah, girl, we noticed,” Aurora gently bitches, because how can she not when Ellie wears the same dress every weekend? Aurora assumed she couldn’t afford another one and was making the most of it. If the girl has multiples of the same dress by choice, that’s hilarious.

Tayce snickers beside her and even Asttina has to laugh.

“I bet ya did, cheeky wee bitch,” Ellie smirks at her, eyes twinkling with the challenge. “I’m as predictable as your tits popping out your too tight robes, eh?”

Aurora gasps, mouth open. She wasn’t expecting _that_ and it makes her a bit self conscious.

But it’s quite fun to have friends as cheeky as her, who can clap back on her level and keep her on her toes. She’s grinning in spite of herself.

Tayce is cackling _“shots fired”_ making sound effects and Asttina laughs, “Got you there babe.” 

Aurora must be pouting noticeably because Tayce turns on Ellie. 

“Don’t be a salty Sally, girl. She said it but we were all thinking it. Come on now.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind a look in the box, if the wee slag’s offering," Ellie shrugs cheekily. “Then I can make something new since yous clearly have such a problem with my looks.”

"You mean _look_. Singular," Aurora grins at her, eyes sparkling.

“It’s up to Aurora if she wants to share,” Tayce shrugs. “Oi,” she fires a mild stinging charm at Asttina’s grabby hands.

They all look at Aurora expectantly.

How can she not share with her friends, when she’s been so lucky? 

It’s unbelievable that this really is all hers to decide what to do with.

“Yeah of course you can. You’re all welcome to have something. Choose whatever you like.” 

Tayce smiles fondly at her, even though she’s technically giving away part of the expensive present Tayce just gave her, which is nothing to smile about.

“Ooo thanks chick,” Ellie grabs some baby pink satin and gives her the most genuine grin she’s seen from her yet.

It’s probably the friendliest Asttina and Ellie have ever been to her, actually, now she has something to offer them other than funny faces and bitchy comments. 

“Tayce I’m making yours first,” Aurora springs eagerly into action, wanting to make everything at once and show Tayce how grateful she is, show them all exactly what she can _do_ with all this. 

There’s nothing stopping her now being the designer she was meant to be. She mustn’t let them all down.

“...the one we drew the other day. We could do it in this satin with the sapphires.” 

She holds it up against Tayce. It’s perfect with her eyes. 

“Come here, I’ll measure you.”

She pulls Tayce over to her bed where she has a measuring tape in her trunk and Tayce floats after her happily, looking so entertained to see Aurora in her element. 

“Lovely jubbly. My own personal designer. Watch out bitches.”

“That’s right bitch.” 

Aurora can’t stop grinning. She doesn’t think she’s ever smiled so much in her life. 

If she’d saved up since the day she was born she’d never afford even half of this material. It’s life changing. Tayce is literally helping her make her dreams come true.

She doesn't know what to say, how to thank her. It’s one thing to have a best friend who shares your interests. But one who encourages you like this, helps you, so _beyond_ helps you in a way you never would have imagined...It's not even the money, although that is huge. But the _thoughtfulness._ The way she _was_ listening and put all this effort and care into supporting her...

The other girls are off eating bonbons on Ellie’s bed and Aurora turns around with the tape in her hand and Tayce is watching her warm and steady with a little smile. 

She’s overcome suddenly, drops the tape and folds her into a hug, too grateful to speak. 

Tayce wraps around her, squeezing her tight, and she smiles into Tayce’s shoulder. 

“Thank you so much Tayce. I don’t even know what to say,” she murmurs. 

“I got you, girl.” She can hear the smile in Tayce’s voice. 

She’s so unbelievably glad she saved Tayce some toast that first morning. She doesn’t even want to know what her life would be now if she hadn’t.

It comes naturally to Aurora, wanting to take care of people and make sure they’re okay. She never expected it could make people want to start doing it back. No one ever has before.

"This is way too nice. You're spoiling me," she murmurs shyly. 

"Course I am, baby. You deserve it," Tayce says warm in her ear.

Tayce is a bit of a stiff hugger. Aurora is cuddly enough for the both of them but she doesn’t want to overwhelm her. 

They relax into it less awkwardly after a few seconds though and it’s a nice hug. Until Asttina calls, 

“Alright over there girls? What are you measuring, Greengrass? Her arse?” and they pull apart quickly, a rare blush on Tayce’s high cheekbones that matches Aurora’s own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


	7. STARS

In Spring term Aurora and Tayce get separated in Transfiguration because Professor McGonagall says they talk too much and distract each other from their work.

So Aurora spends most Transfiguration lessons after that pulling faces at Tayce from across the room, using her limited Transfiguration skills to briefly give herself three eyes or weird ears or a Veronica Granger nose which make both herself and Tayce crack up. 

Tayce joins in enthusiastically pulling faces back but she’s too pretty to ever really look bad, no matter what she gives herself. Aurora appreciates the effort and her enthusiasm though. 

One night she must have taken it a bit too far with the Transfiguration earlier because she has a nightmare that her face is melting into a strange shape and her teeth are falling out. She’s also running in the forest and things are chasing her. It’s a big mess of horrible stuff and she wakes up crying.

She quickly puts up a silencing spell and lets herself sob it out and hug her knees, like she always does after a bad dream, deep calming breaths and big sniffs until the tears stop. 

It’s quite cathartic. She hasn’t had a good cry in a few weeks. She always feels better letting out some of the shit pent up too tight inside her.

The details of the dream fade quickly but there’s a horrible feeling left on her chest. 

She gets up for a glass of water. That always calms her down at home if she’s upset in the middle of the night. Maybe she’ll get her portfolio out of her trunk and light her wand and do some sketching if she can’t go back to sleep.

When she gets out of bed she sees a shadow on the windowsill and jumps, clutching her chest. 

“Calm down, jumpy Jane, only me.” 

The shadow turns and it’s Tayce. The green glow of the water streams in through the window, eerily illuminating her. 

She’s sitting on the windowsill, staring out at the lake. Scrawny knees up to her chin, a big pair of surreal blinking eyes in the dark, looking like a cute little ghost. 

“Tayce! What are you doing? You scared me.” 

“Just having a think. Hanging with the fish. Nocturnal Nancy, me. I think I'm part owl. Twit, twoo, babeh.”

Aurora laughs, but it’s a little shaky. The cloud of the nightmare is still hanging over her and Tayce lurking unexpectedly in the dark like an enigmatic ghoul isn’t helping. 

“What’s got you shaking in your boots, then, Mrs?” 

“Oh. Nothing. Had a bad dream,” Aurora shrugs. “Probably just go splash my face.” 

She doesn’t want to make a fuss. She's been able to take care of herself if she wakes up in the night for as long as she can remember. She had to. If she didn’t, no one else would. She's never talked to anyone about a dream before. 

“Come on then,” Tayce heaves herself off the ledge with an agile jump, landing like a cat and stalking towards her. “S’pose you better come sleep in with me.”

“What?” Aurora asks softly, wondering if she’s still dreaming.

“I’ll keep the monsters away, babehh,” Tayce wiggles her fingers in Aurora's face like claws and growls softly, a flash of perfect teeth. 

She wraps a hand around Aurora’s wrist and tugs her over to her drapes. Aurora follows her automatically even though it's one of those things that feels too special for her, feels like she shouldn’t be allowed. 

They stop next to Tayce’s bed and Tayce turns Aurora’s hand over and runs her wand across her palm. 

“Ow,” Aurora pouts at the sharp sting. In the dim light she can see a dribble of blood.

“Sorry baby,” Tayce mutters over her shoulder, tossing her silky curtain of hair back and concentrating.

She waves her wand in an elaborate pattern over her drapes, murmuring enchantments. 

The whole bed seems to shudder. The air gets thick and heavy and shimmers in front of them. When it settles, Aurora feels a strange sense of belonging spread from that spot and reach her. She suddenly realises she’s been feeling a foreboding energy to avoid this part of the room. She hadn’t noticed she was feeling it until just now when it disappeared, now that it feels cosy and welcoming to her.

“Letting you past the nasty Black wards that do _horrible_ things to my enemies,” Tayce smirks over her shoulder. 

She dives, arms out, onto her bed, rolls over onto her side with a leg drawn up and smiles slowly at Aurora.

“Don't tell the girls. I like a lie in.” 

She pats the mattress next to her enthusiastically. 

Aurora hesitates. She didn’t get her glass of water. 

But Tayce Black just let her into her wards and is inviting her to climb into bed with her. 

Let’s be honest, she doesn’t care if she ever drinks again.

She scrambles up onto the bed, letting the drape fall behind her, closing them off in their own little world. 

Tayce smiles at her. Not her usual mischievous one or her self satisfied one. A beautiful, soft, warm welcoming one Aurora has only seen hints of before. 

She likes it so much her breath catches. 

“Wanna see something lush?”

“Yeah,” Aurora’s stomach skips for some reason. Maybe it’s being alone behind the drapes not knowing what Tayce is going to show her. 

“Feast your eyes, baby,” Tayce throws herself onto her back against her pillows and tugs Aurora down next to her, so they are both looking up. The pillow smells like Tayce’s hair and Aurora breathes it in a bit deeper, trying not to be noticeable about it and creep her out.

Tayce waves her wand and the canopy of her bed turns into the night sky full of stars. 

Aurora gasps. All the constellations are up there, correct to the star as far as she can tell from her shitty knowledge of Astronomy. Tayce flicks her wand and they turn slowly, so she can see every one. It’s better than an Astronomy book. Better than the night sky itself.

“Tayce. That’s so beautiful,” She turns and stares at Tayce, who's beaming proudly at her reaction. 

The exquisite plains of her face are lit by the soft starlight glow and Aurora almost says it again. 

“Comes in handy now we’re under a bloody lake, dun’ it? I miss the stars,” Tayce sighs, wistful. “Happens when you’re part owl.”

“Did you do that non verbal?”

Tayce shrugs a slim shoulder, false modest. 

“I can only do a couple non verbs. Only ones I do all the time. Been doing my little galaxies since I was little.” 

Wow. Of course. Blacks probably come out the womb knowing Astronomy. 

“Yer’s one for you, Frosty.”

“ _Frosty?_ ”

Tayce waves her wand in silence again and Aurora's feet tingle with a warming charm. She laughs self consciously.

“Mmmhm. Frostalina Greengrass. What are you, part polar bear, girl?” Tayce jokes, poking Aurora’s foot with her own toe. 

“You'll have to sort these blocks of ice you call feet out if you wanna hop in for a cwtch next time you have a bad dream.”

Aurora’s heart thuds. Does she really mean…?

“Who says there’ll be a next time. I’ll see if I get any better offers,” she teases back, so she doesn’t come across too keen. 

But she’s flushed with happiness, so humbled at the offer, at the warmth in Tayce’s smile across the starlit pillow. She can't believe how lucky she is to have a best friend like this.

“Look. There's you.” 

“What?”

Tayce points above them. She flicks her wand and a beautiful purple-green glow radiates through the middle of her starscape, making her look even more ethereal with the light it casts over them.

“Aurora Borealis,” Tayce’s eyes shine as she watches the pulsing halo. “There you are, girl.” She sounds so warm and affectionate. Nothing like she is in front of everyone else. 

Tayce twirls her wand to beckon the stars closer, makes them rearrange so the glow dances front and centre.

“There’s me,” Aurora echoes in wonder. 

She's never liked her name more. 

“Why you all the way over there for?” Tayce turns her head and smirks at her across the pillow. She smiles slowly. “Come yer.”

Aurora’s already quite close. She scoots a bit closer, wanting to respect Tayce’s space, feeling lucky to be there at all.

Tayce rolls her eyes, smile twitching at the corners.

“Closer, girl. I don’t bite,” she raises an eyebrow. “Unless you ask nicely.”

She winks and cackles softly and Aurora laughs along with her uncertainly, wondering what Tayce means and why it makes her feel like that.

Before she can properly work it out, Tayce shifts, reaches over and grabs Aurora by the hair at the nape of her neck. Aurora shuffles where she’s led as Tayce literally drags her across the pillow, no nonsense, into her personal space. 

She sort of stiffly bundles Aurora close, cocooning her awkwardly in her bony arms and the leftover smell of yesterday's perfume, like she knows what she’s trying to do but hasn’t actually ever done it before. 

Aurora shifts a bit closer and lets her, fitting soft and accommodating around Tayce’s angles until they work out a position where they fit together comfortably, her head tucked under Tayce’s chin, her heart pounding furiously at the proximity. 

Tayce’s heart is beating fast too. Aurora can feel it against her cheek, under Tayce’s ribs. 

It makes her feel better, after how confidently Tayce initiated this cuddle, that she’s not the only one who finds it overwhelming. 

She can feel _Tayce_ against her cheek, the intense hum of her energy, like lying on a live wire.

“Alright? You comfy?” her melodic voice is less sure than usual.

“Yeah. Um. Thanks,” Aurora murmurs, almost embarrassed, even though there’s no one looking, it’s just them.

“Lovely jubbly, presh presh.”

Tayce starts carding her fingers through Aurora’s hair, brushing it back from her forehead, nails making her scalp tingle. Noticeably concentrating hard, like gentleness is a challenge for her. One she very much wants to get right. 

It reminds Aurora of when her little sister brought a woodlouse in from the garden in the palm of her hand and decided it would be her pet because she thought it was cute. She wanted to stroke it and Aurora kept worrying she’d squash it and be sad.

“My mama did this for me after nightmares when I was little,” Tayce murmurs. 

Aurora glances up and a beautiful pair of eyes peer down at her. She feels like she’s dreaming. Belatedly she manages to stop staring up at Tayce’s face in absolute awe and hear the words she just said. 

She wishes she hadn’t bothered, because the memories they make her think of aren’t that nice.

“What you pouting at me like that for, angelface?”

“I’m not _pouting…_ ”

“I know what you’re thinking about the ol’ Blacks. We’re not all monsters,” Tayce says softly, blinking down at her enigmatically.

“It’s not that,” Aurora hurries to say. “I don’t think you’re ...it’s nothing.” 

Shut up, brain. Stop getting so comfortable around Tayce. If Aurora’s not careful she won’t have a single secret left by the end of the year. 

“Go on. You can tell me baby,” Tayce’s nails scratch her scalp softly and it feels so good she wants to purr.

Ug, fine. It’s only Tayce. She is Aurora’s best friend, after all. She’s never had one before but she knows you’re supposed to tell best friends everything.

“My mum’s never done owt like this, that’s all,” she confesses, self conscious. 

“She weren’t, like, horrible,” she adds quickly so she don’t sound like some tragic case, because Tayce is frowning deeply, eyes looking stormier. 

“She just...had her own shit. She weren’t around much.”

Aurora doesn’t _blame_ her mum because she knows what it’s like to have to fight tooth and nail against your own brain.

“And the...um...stuff with my dad was hard for her, y’know? Most of the time she just left us to it.”

In a way she’s lucky that she learned to take care of herself early. Some of these girls will have a shock after Hogwarts, on their own in the world. 

But if she lets herself think about it too much of course she gets sad that she never had that special someone to tell her everything would be okay and make her smile when she was upset. To tell her she was a good girl and she was doing her best and they were proud of her, like most girls had. Of course she gets annoyed that she had to end up with the crap family, that for some reason she didn't deserve a better one. 

“That must have been shit, boo boo,” Tayce makes a brief detour to thoughtfully stroke Aurora’s eyebrow. 

She gives Aurora an empathetic, sad look. It’s pitying, which is not something Aurora has ever wanted, from anyone, because it’s embarrassing and she’s better than that. 

But she doesn't mind too much because it’s only Tayce. It feels like this is just between them. She hopes. Tayce hasn’t told any of her other secrets. Yet.

“I s’pose,” Aurora shrugs, trying not to think about it too much because she doesn’t want to start crying or something and ruin the moment. 

“It weren’t great. But not like I could do ‘owt about it, so...” she shrugs, shifting against Tayce, not really wanting to talk any more about how she’s had to learn to comfort herself as best she can because no one else would.

She feels awkward for a second, listening to herself breathe and feeling like it’s too loud. Feeling like she’s too much. Exposed and unappealing.

“Nevermind,” Tayce hums, with quiet authority. “You got me now, haven't you?” 

Aurora looks up in surprise and Tayce’s stormy eyes are blazing down at her like a promise, so fierce she can hardly look at her.

“Um, yeah,” Aurora sounds so embarrassingly pleased it almost comes out like a question.

“S’pose I have, bitch,” she breathes softly. 

She curls into Tayce shyly, shifting closer, face smushed into the smell of her. Wishes she could curl so close she’d disappear into her completely and never have to feel less than this again. 

“No supposing about it, baby,” Tayce's hand is steady and reassuring in her hair. “Yer I am. And I ain’t going nowhere. Don’t worry your pretty head about that, angel.” 

Something huge swells in Aurora’s chest. Tingles trickle down her spine. Nice ones.

It’s a bit scary how Tayce knows exactly what to say to make her feel so good and...she’s not even sure how to describe this feeling. She hasn’t ever had it before. Sort of comfortable like she doesn’t have to keep her guard up so high. Sort of...protected and safe. Like it might be okay to just be herself, and Tayce might not only tolerate it but like it.

She feels stupid even thinking it. Tayce probably has no idea how much this means to her and would be creeped out if she knew. The thought of it is almost scarier than Tayce has ever been with a wand.

“Tayce. Thanks for being so nice to me,” Aurora cringes at how embarrassingly sincere she sounds but she has to say it. 

“Jeez, I’m only playing with your hair, girl,” Tayce smirks at her, but her eyes are soft like she knows what Aurora means. 

“Not just this, I mean, everything, y’know? I'm really glad that we're friends,” Aurora blinks up at her shyly.

No one’s been anywhere near as kind to her as Tayce. She has no idea why but she's so grateful.

“Oh honey, baby, lovely girl,” Tayce beams, “My pleasure,” and she looks like it really is. 

It’s funny how intimidated she was by Tayce the first day of school. How fierce and wild and impressive she seemed. 

And now, she’s still in awe of her and still thinks she’s amazing - and sometimes terrifying - but...it’s so different now she’s one of the few people who gets to see the sillier, softer sides of Tayce Black too. 

She's never felt anything like this. Being gently petted. With Tayce’s sure, positive energy all around her. It's so relaxing. So comforting. She’s so content. She could absolutely melt into the bed. Into _Tayce_. Even with her stiff posture and hard angles and the current of coiled restlessness under Aurora’s cheek. Even with how obviously unfamiliar it is to her to be like this instead of standing tall and proud or running around like a lunatic, how hard she’s concentrating to just lie there still and touch Aurora softly. Aurora feels more comfortable than she ever knew she could with another person.

...and only a little bit self conscious about Tayce quietly watching her, looking proud of how much Aurora’s enjoying her attention.

“You like this then, baby?” she smirks down at her, lips quirking.

“Don't patronize me, bitch,” Aurora rolls her eyes and pokes Tayce in the stomach, a little bit shy about how very much she _does_ like it.

“No need to play coy, girl. You love being my little baby, don’t lie,” Tayce's nails scratch the sensitive part at the back of Aurora’s scalp and she lets out a little sigh. It makes Tayce raise an eyebrow, eyes darkening.

Auroras stomach squirms. She _does_ like it. 

She hates that she’s so transparent and loves that at least Tayce doesn’t seem to mind. 

Maybe Tayce even likes it too. Maybe she’s not just being a good best friend and this is actually...really nice for her as well.

The thought of that is too huge to properly contemplate when she’s only inches and a pair of silky pyjamas away from a face full of Tayce Black’s chest.

She can’t think of anything to say that isn't embarrassing so she just turns her head further into Tayce and makes another pleased noise.

“I bet you’re cute when you’re asleep.”

“Oi! You saying I’m not when I’m awake?” She mumbles, finding Tayce’s waist under her pyjamas and giving it a good poke. 

Tayce cackles, “Ha! You said it, not me. I was being nice, bitch!”

It’s a scary thought though, actually, falling asleep like this. Aurora’s heart rate kicks up thinking about it. She’s never seen herself asleep. She might pull really ugly faces or something. 

“Do you snore?” Tayce sounds like she’s grinning.

“No!” Aurora gasps, outraged, gently smacking Tayce in indignation, though it's such a delicate slap she might as well be tickling her.

But honestly she has no idea. She’s never slept next to someone to find out.

Other than her brother who probably would have told her if she did. Unless he was snoring louder. 

It’s worrying how much she could embarrass herself while she’s unconscious. She should try to stay awake all night just to make sure she doesn’t. Even though it defeats the point of getting into bed with Tayce and she’ll be exhausted tomorrow. Better safe than sorry.

But she already feels so cosy and blissful curled up against Tayce, it’s going to be a struggle not to drop off.

“Why are you doing this though?” she says to Tayce’s armpit.

“Rather I chuck you out on your sad arse? Off you trot then, Frostalina.”

Aurora scoots closer. So close she’s practically climbing Tayce’s leg. 

“No, I said I’m grateful,” she pouts. “I just…” Aurora dares to look up at her. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Don't you like it?” something sparks deep in Tayce’s stormy eyes.

“Yeah,” Aurora breathes, wide eyed, and the spark settles into a simmer. 

“ _You’re_ nice to _me_ ,” Tayce says, as though that’s a reason, not an involuntary reaction. 

Aurora’s constantly stopping herself being _nicer_ because it would be embarrassing.

“But Tayce, _come on_. You're not usually _nice_ to people...” she tries to articulate. 

“Oi! Shady cunt,” Tayce scoffs, laughing. “I'm sweet as hell! Heart of gold! A saint, an _angel,_ I am.”

She flicks Aurora’s forehead and her other hand pinches Aurora’s side, making Aurora squirm against her. Her eyes flare.

“You're the big ol' bitch, baby," she purrs, "I'm the nicest cow in our year.” 

“I know. But just…” Aurora cringes, doesn’t know how to say it without sounding embarrassing. “You're not like _this_ with anyone else though.” 

“How do _you_ know?” Tayce challenges, raising an eyebrow, unreadably mysterious. 

Aurora's stomach drops. 

She instantly feels really stupid and at the same time so blindingly jealous of anyone else who gets to have Tayce like this. She needs to know who they are. Wants to slap anyone she has to share this special side of Tayce with and tell them to piss off and find their own best friend.

“Baby baby, I can be a lot nastier if you like,” Tayce hums in her soft lilt, and smiles wickedly. 

On the next stroke through Aurora’s hair, she makes a fist and tugs at the nape of her neck, hard enough to make Aurora's head tilt back sharply.

Aurora gasps, lips parting. Tayces eyes go very wide and dark, watching her so intently Aurora’s mouth goes dry.

Oh. Yes. She likes that. 

She doesn’t want Tayce to be _mean_ to her, but whatever _this_ is, she likes it. A lot. In a way she feels between her legs, caught in her chest, so _much_. It’s confusing. 

Tayce is just watching her, fist tight around her hair, slowly licking her lip, and she doesn't want to make her feel weird so she looks down and shrugs, wiggles around to make Tayce let go. 

“I don’t want you to _stop_ ,” she blushes, grateful she can hide in Tayce’s shoulder. “You know I like it."

Tayce hums warmly above her. Her fingers start the gentle combing again, carefully pulling apart the tangle where she pulled it.

“...why _me_ though?” Aurora cringes at sounding whiny.

But she has to know. What did she possibly do right to be chosen? She knows everyone thinks it when they see her with Tayce Black and no one thinks it more than her.

“Why _not_ you?” Tayce throws back stubborn, defensive. “Bestie.”

Aurora knows very well by now how annoyed Tayce gets when her decisions are questioned. How Tayce can get completely irrational, beyond logic, once she’s set on something. 

Apparently her opinion of Aurora now falls into that category. 

It makes Aurora smile in spite of herself. In spite of how much she might disagree.

All the reasons _why not_ flood Aurora's head like they always do. The long long list of why she'd be anybody else if she could.

But when she opens her mouth, none of them come out. 

With the soft unguarded way Tayce is looking at her, the reassuring feeling of Tayce’s fingers in her hair, cuddled in Tayce’s arms, surrounded by Tayce’s stars, in Tayce’s bed...

...Aurora can't speak as she realises, for the first time in her life, she'd rather be herself than anyone else. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of first year! 
> 
> There is a lot more to this word vomited in a doc (83k pls send help) and if I do manage to get through editing it there’s some juicy stuff when they’re older and lots more of this type of stuff before that! 
> 
> I’ll try and post a year at a time, or at least a big chunk at a time like this. It’s semi-coherent so hopefully won’t take 5 thousand years to finish but as we know I am not the best at either WIPs or writing quickly so no promises whatsoever!! 
> 
> Hope you are enjoying so far!
> 
> If you're enjoying my writing find out more at my [my tumblr](https://poppedthep.tumblr.com/).


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